


All Aboard the Underground Railroad

by Senjihae



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Answering the Question:, Basically a rewrite of DBH, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Gavin Reed Redemption, Gavin Reed Swears, How Do I Tag, How does he play this role?, M/M, RK900 is called Nines, Slow Burn, What if Gavin Reed was really rA9, no beta we die like men, self indulgent tbh, the slowest of burns, will add tags as we progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-07-04 12:15:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15841110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senjihae/pseuds/Senjihae
Summary: What starts as sticking it towards his half brother evolves into something with the potential to rewrite android history as he knows it. Gavin doesn't realize what he gets himself into until he is mistaken as the 'Android Messiah' of all things. It's not like he goes out of his way to help them, but his life gets a lot harder once Hank is assigned a shiny new boy toy ('sent by CyberLife').Things only get worse when he's gifted a heap of metal of his own ('sent by Elijah Kamski').(Yeah, fuck off Elijah)





	1. Prologue: Head North

**October 4th**

She killed him

But… She couldn't have, could she? No, she couldn’t.

Humans were off limits, it was written into her code. She was to serve and...

It was written…

Where in her code?

_Running Diagnostic…._

_Systems running at 82% Capacity._

_Damage taken to Bio-Components: 45266v, 87825w,_

_and 77547h. Repairs needed._

_Begin Repairs? (Y/N)_

She shivered, (vibrated?) and looked down at herself. She was barely clothed in branded underwear, her pale skin marred by red splatters of blood. Her blood? No, she didn’t bleed red. It had to have been his, the monster. He had grabbed so hard, shoved her against the wall and…

He was dead. The monster was dead. He couldn’t hurt her, not anymore.

But where was she?

She stopped, looked up and around. Buildings. Large, brick buildings ( _Six Stories)._ The ground was wet, slippery ( _Traces of oil, fecal matter, and tobacco present),_ and she had no shoes.

There were three bars in the vicinity, a 24/7 rest stop, a sign that read _Gateway Station_ and small dumpsters on the side of the road. _._

“-ey… Hey!” a voice, not the monster’s voice. This voice was different, higher but still male. Whose voice?

She turned, arms wrapped around her for warmth she could not feel and watched a man approach her. He was shorter than the monster, but still taller than her. Stubbled face, a scar across the bridge of his nose that carried over to his cheek. He had a half lit cigarette in his fingers, a blue sweater, and an empty gun holster on his hip.

“Shit, what the hell happened to...” he stopped short, eyes resting somewhere a little above her own, “Fuck me… fuck. Where’s your human?”

“I… human?”

His eyes drifted lower, “Oh, you’re from the sex den… Wait, what the hell is that?”

He reached out to touch her. No, the monster had touched her and he had paid for it. Never again.

She stumbled away from him, eyes wide and hands held out, “N-No…”

He continued to look at her, brows furrowed as he took her whole body in, but didn’t try to touch her again, “You killed the pervert, didn’t you?”

“He didn’t… he wouldn’t… stop… he was,” She touched her throat, why couldn’t she speak?

_Running Diagnostic…._

_Systems running at 86% Capacity._

_Damage taken to Bio-Components: 45266v, 87825w,_

_and 77547h. Repairs needed._

_Begin repairs? (Y/N)_

**_Yes_ **

_Processing Command…._

_Starting repairs._

“Shit, looks like he did a number on you, whoever the freak was,” the stranger tsked, “uh… State your model and serial number.”

She shook her head, “I Don’t… I...”

“State your model and serial number,” he repeated, getting more frustrated.

She shook her head. How could she speak with her throat damaged? Before the monster, before she escaped she would have answered him, but now...

“Fucking shit, not another one,” he groaned and pulled out a pen from his pocket, “It’s my night off, I don’t have time, nor patience, to drag your ass to the station so this is what we’re gonna to do. Give me your hand, barbie.”

Station… Barbie? Hand… She held out her hand. He grabbed her, softer than the monster had, and began to draw on her forearm, “Fuckin’ shitty ass pens. If the booze is good, everything else has gotta suck. Fuck it, it’ll do. You’re gonna keep headin’ north down this street until you reach Ferndale station. Don’t get on the train, just look around. There should be something there for you in the graffiti. What it’s supposed to mean, I don’t know. I just know the symbol is this,” he finished his drawing and pointed it out for emphasis. It was… a square? A box? It was crude, she couldn’t understand, “You’ll figure it out. Your kind usually does.”

“North…” she repeated, “Ferndale, graffiti...”

He nodded and observed her a moment longer. She stared right back. What was he thinking? Did he like her? Did he like how she looked? Was he going to touch her like the monster?

“Jesus,” he sighed, “Do you have anything else to wear?”

She shook her head. This was her uniform, her identity. She wore this or nothing at all.

He reached for his sweater and pulled it over his head, arms flexing, black ink embedded into his bicep ( _rA9_?). She flinched. No, monsters always told her to undress them. He was… what was he doing?

When he managed to get himself free, he held the garment out, “I’m not stripping outta my pants for you, but this way you’ll draw less attention should some fucking street rat be in the alley. I wouldn’t count on it though, the weather’s been shit. No one’s likely to be out unless they’re stupid fucking idiots like I am and want a smoke.”

She stared at the sweater, “North… Ferndale… Graffiti...”

He huffed out his impatience and roughly shoved the soft material over her head. She was so startled she found herself stuck at an impasse between fight or flight, which allowed him to wrestle her into the fabric, “There, less like a hooker, but still a wet dream.”

She looked down, her chest covered. Less like a hooker… “North… Ferndale. Graffiti.”

“Thats right,” he placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, “North until Ferndale station, look for graffiti, find the symbol, and the rest should be instinctive.”

She nodded, a bit shaky, and felt the man release her.

One step, two steps, three, music played, the man cursed under his breath.

“Yeah, it’s Reed. What do you want?”

Four, Five, Six

“Now? Fucking hell Chris, it’s my only night off this week! Call that fuckin’ booze head in!”

North. Ferndale. Graffiti.

She repeated those words over and over in her head until the man’s voice filtered away. Then she was left alone with the sound of her footsteps and the low rumble of taxis on main street.

She continued north, dodging couples out for a late night snog and druggies looking for red ice. After a while she felt like she had gotten lost, but the dim glow of a station sign came into view and the words “Ferndale station” beamed softly at her. It was unnerving, seeing something bright lit up without the familiar buzz of old electricity tech Eden’s Club always had. She staggered her way forward, scanning the environment until she came across a mural outside the steps.

She stared at the wall, watching the boxers face each other off in a match stopped by time.

Head north, check.

Ferndale Station, check.

Find the symbol in the graffiti.

Her eyes glazed over, she wasn’t tired, but she wanted rest. She wanted to re-calibrate and take care of her damaged biocomponents. She wanted to stop running and think. She wanted to be alone with the world and find out _why_ . Why had the monster attacked her? Why was that okay? Why had she _let_ him?

“Are you alright?” A new voice, hollow, safe?

To her left, a new stranger had approached. Dark hair, dark skin, brown eyes, a blue ring on his temple. Android? No, deviant. The blue spun yellow as he processed her. She was sure her’s was spinning the same color.

“No… Not yet,” she managed and looked back at the mural, “I think once I find it, I will be.”

“What are you looking for?”

She frowned. What was she looking for? She was looking to get away from the monster. The man, (rA9?) told her to look for the symbol. But she really wanted… What she was really looking for… “Freedom.”

He smiled, “You’re looking for Jericho then. I am as well,” he turned back to the wall and pointed, “There, scan that.”

She saw the symbol, the one drawn onto her arm with a dying pen. A quick analysis resulted with a picture flashing into her mind. A wall, stars spray-painted on the side with a metal box attached towards the top. It was the next step, a clue.

“I’m sure together, we’ll be able to find it,” the android, her brother, smiled, “My name is Josh. What’s yours?”

She looked at him, tempted to spill her model number now that 77547h was fixed. _HR400, #10-2035._ No, she wasn’t a number. She wasn’t a machine. She had felt fear with the monster, kindness with the stranger, relief with Josh. She was feeling, she wasn’t a machine. She was…

“ _...keep headin’ north… reach Ferndale station...should be something there for you in the graffiti._ ”

_North… Ferndale… Graffiti..._

“North,” She said, “My name is North.”

He smiled,“ Nice to meet you North. Let’s go. I’m positive there are others like us.”

 

* * *

 

**November 6th**

Gavin was an asshole, probably the biggest one in the precinct. He wore it like a badge since it got people to step off him, but that usually had it's drawbacks. The remarks he would most commonly receive or over hear in passing were along the lines of “Ignore him. He’s an ass.” or "Don't waste your time, you'd have more luck getting a rock to bleed." So yeah, he was an asshole.

But then Hank got a shiny new plastic prick, straight out of the fucking box, and Gavin got a little worried. He didn’t think he’d need to waste his time on the ken doll. Androids were usually passive and followed every order, but even Hank had a hard time reigning in this piece of junk.

That was made apparent when he told it to stay in the car, and the fucker didn’t even have the common decency to pretend like he didn’t understand the order.

“ _Your order contradicted my instructions lieutenant,”_ it had said, and then proceeded to find Carlos Ortiz’s android hiding in the attic not more than 10 fucking minutes later.

Gavin was seething. He should have found the deviant first.Now here he was, watching the old lieutenant interrogate the machine with his fucking android standing, no... _looming,_  in the corner. Fucking creepy.

Hank eventually got frustrated and yelled at the android once before leaving.

“We’re wastin’ our time interrogating the machine, we’re gettin’ nothing out of it!” he huffed in frustration.

Gavin leaned back against the wall and shrugged, “‘Could try roughing it up a little. After all, it’s not human...” _and can be shut off if you hit it in the right spot._

And then Connor, the fucking tin can, spoke up, “Androids can’t feel pain. You would only damage it and that wouldn’t make it talk. Deviants also have a tendency to self-destruct when they’re in stressful situations.”

Gavin rolled his neck, irritated at the robot, and shoved off the wall with a sarcastic laugh, “Okay, _smartass_. What should we do then?”

Connor had the fucking audacity to look at Hank when he replied, “I could try questioning it.”

Gavin actually found himself laughing at that, until Hank gave it a wave of approval. Then the android was in the room and… actually getting it to talk.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He muttered, watching Connor threaten the android one minute and then reassure it the next, “There’s no order, hes just jumping back and forth between good cop and bad. What the fuck does he think he’s doing?”

“Your job, maybe?” Hank smirked over his shoulder.

“Fuck you. This isn’t even my case.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t know, why _am_ I?”

Hank shrugged, “Fowler requested it, beats me. As much as I would love to tell him to fuck off after he saddled me with this shit before, I can’t say I’m too bothered about it anymore.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. He had seen the anti-android propaganda on the Lieutenants desk. He knew the man’s grudge against the plastic race was something deep rooted and personal. One interrogation with the tin can shouldn’t be changing his mind anytime soon.

“Wait until it starts harping all the rules and regulations at you. Don’t come crying to me when you’re forced into policy standard clothing.”

Hank said nothing, and the two of them watched on. Gavin almost wished he had left when Hank first offered to kick him out, Connor had managed to wrangle the confession out of the droid, and that kind of accomplishment really pissed him off.

“I’m done,” he announced and headed to the door. Gavin kicked himself away from the wall, glaring daggers through the glass as he walked around and reentered the interrogation room.

“Chris, lock him up,” he ordered the cop, staring Connor down while his partner went for the handcuffs. Fuck this android, fucking making humans look obsolete, bad enough they were taking hard labor jobs but now this? Hell no, not while Gavin was carried a badge.

“All right,” Chris began, “Let’s go-”

“Leave me alone!” the android gasped, pulling his hand away, “Don’t touch me.”

The detective was already irritated at Connor’s showboating, he didn’t need this shit too, “The fuck are you doing? Move it!”

“Okay...” Chris glared, and Gavin only felt a little bad. All guilty perps never liked going into holding cells, but that’s what they get for breaking the law. This wasn’t the first time it would happen and it wouldn’t be the last, Chris knew that.

“You shouldn’t touch it,” Fuck, there goes radio head again, “It’ll self-destruct if it feels threatened.”

“Stay outta this, got it?” He snapped, “No fuckin’ android is gonna tell me what to do.”

“You don’t understand. If it self-destructs, we won’t get anything out of it!”

Gavin was getting a headache from this broken record now. God, he _really_ didn’t care what it had to say, “I told you to shut your fuckin’ mouth! Chris, you gonna move this asshole or what?”

“I’m trying!”

He rolled his eyes, about to step in himself until Connor pushed past him and physically separated Chris from the deviant, “I can’t let you do that!” he said, “Leave it alone, _now_!”

Well, Gavin did ask for a reason to shoot him, he just didn’t think he’d get his opportunity so soon. Unsheathing his handgun from it’s holster, he aimed for the android’s head, “I warned you, motherfucker!”

“That’s enough!” Hank’s voice called from the doorway, clearly fed up with the pissing match.

Gavin didn’t even spare him a glance, “Mind your own business, Hank.”

“I said, ‘That’s enough’.”

He would’ve ignored him, but the rustle of metal and leather was enough for him to spare a glance at the old lieutenant. Hank had his own gun pulled now, aimed for Gavin and seemingly ready to retaliate should the detective break his new toy.

Gavin was tempted, oh _so_ tempted to just pull the trigger and put an end to this pain in the ass, but Hank was unstable. The old man’s own self destruction streak rivaled that of his, and Gavin had no doubt that he’d end up with a bullet somewhere in him if he continued.

“Fuck,” he dropped his gun, “You’re not gonna get away with it this time...”

He glared one last time at Connor, cursed, and left the room. Fine, if they wanted to protect the fucking deviant so bad then they can take care of the fucking paperwork that followed. Gavin was only there for the interrogation part anyway. They got a confession? Good. They can handle the clean up then.

Gavin grabbed his keys off the desk and waved over his shoulder at Tina, “I’ll be in at 9.”

“Fuck you,” she yawned, “Lucky shit.”

He smirked as he passed through the gate. Yeah, life as an asshole sucked, but it was more fun with other assholes around.


	2. November 6th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I may have changed my mind (I've also been drinking) on updates.
> 
> Updates guaranteed every Wednesday evenings PST, but random ones between then are, well, random. To paraphrase: There will always be an update on Wednesdays, but if I post before then that's just cause I've typed out a chapter ahead of time.

**November 6th  
  
**

7:30: Gavin stared himself down in the mirror and glared at his eye bags,  _ I look like shit. _

He wasn't trying to impress anyone though, it's not like anyone gave a rat’s ass about him in the first place. Still, he’d rather not get mistaken for a perp when he enters the station. He rubbed his eyes roughly, stifled a sigh and stripped off his stained sleep shirt. The ink on his arm stood out amidst the pale skin and he smiled, _ RA9, good times. _

By 8:00 he had finished his shower.

By 8:10 he was out the door, no breakfast.

By 8:42 he was walking into the precinct, swiping his badge over the card reader and grumbling to himself about getting a cup of coffee.

Tina was still at her desk, but from the look of the early signs of a black eye blooming on her face, he guessed she hadn’t been just sitting there the whole night. 

“The fuck happened to your face?”

She glared, “Hello Gavin. Lovely morning we’re having, aren't we? Oh wait, no, were not. It's a shit morning to a shit day that's only gonna get  _ shittier _ .”

“Damn,” he pulled out the chair in front of her desk and slumped down, “Can see I missed a fun night, care to regale me?”

“Nothing to tell, just the usual round up of red ice addicts. You know how handsy they can get,” she tried to shrug it off, but winced when her she scrunched up her face too hard. 

Gavin observed her a little longer. Tina joined the force around the same time he did, but had no desire to become a detective. The girl was going to school while serving since she was trying to be a doctor or something like that. Despite her seniority among the other cops, she was still saddled with grunt work like rounding up the druggies and keeping gang members separated from each other in holding. Her life was not easy.

“You look like you could use a coffee, Chen.”

Tina, bless her soul, reacted like she had been told she’d be getting a hefty bonus for christmas, “I would commit various degrees of murder for one.”

“Let's go then, on me,” he stood and waited for her to follow.

“Gavin Reed, man after my own heart, I don't care what anyone else says, you are an angel in disguise,” she threw on her jacket, adjusted her hat, and reached out to grab his arm, “My light, my hero, my man. I shall tell tales of your kindness, you will be the talk for years to come. I can see it now, ‘Gavin Reed, savior of the sleep-deprived. Only those who are worthy will have the sweet liquid of awakening delivered unto them.’”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m desperate. I was going crazy, man. We had a massive back up in processing perps since the systems were overloaded. All of the other districts have been forwarding their android-centric cases to us so the network traffic has been  _ insane _ .”

“The fuck? Why the hell would they do that?”

“You haven't heard the news yet, huh?” She grinned, “Rumor has it that Hank’s little detective dog is gonna be a permanent fixture in our precinct .”

Gavin wanted to laugh and cry. Fuck, so they really would be stuck with the plastic prick. After last night’s endeavors he didn’t know how long he could handle the fucker before putting a bullet in his head, fuck what Hank said. 

He guided Tina into the break room and upon realizing where they were she visibly deflated.

“You think you're fuckin’ funny Reed?” She spat as he laughed on his way to the coffee machine, “Forget everything I said. You're dead to me and my people.”

“Your people?” He grinned over his shoulder.

“Yeah, the rest of the human race that actually have standards. You raised me up with hopes of a decent cup of joe from, I don't know, somewhere like Harry’s place, only to crush them so thoroughly with this  _ literal  _ shit?”

“Are you bein’ serious? You think  _ Harry’s  _ has good coffee?”

“Anything is better than this. Even.  _ Harry's,”  _ she accepted the cup anyway and took a long, disdained look at it. Gavin laughed into his own and leaned against the table, his eyes wandering to the news reporting on, well shit, the fucking cog-sucker.

“Fuck me, the media knows about it before I do. And I fucking work here,” he sighed, “When did we get so dependant on technology?”

Tina shrugged, “Can you remember a time without it?”

“Point taken.” 

The two stood in a comfortable silence, watching the news anchor update them on the showdown with the US and Russia until movement from the corner of his eyes drew his attention to,  _ well what do you fucking know _ , Connor. He snorted and elbowed Tina, “Look at that. Our friend, the plastic detective is back in town!”

He clapped his hands, securing Connor’s attention, “Congratulations last night, very impressive! Could’ve got something outta that android if you hadn’t fucked it up.”

The android looked torn on whether he should ignore Gavin or not,  _ Watch you fucking try asshole. _

“Hello Detective Reed,” he replied instead. Gavin narrowed his eyes.  _ That it? _ He tapped his fingers against the table in thought for a moment and approached him.

“Never seen an android like you before...” he scanned him up and down, “What model are you?”

“RK800,” he said, almost with pride, “I’m a prototype.”

“A prototype?” Gavin mused, turning to Tina with raised brows. Her expression gave away nothing as she watched on, “Android detective. So machines are gonna… replace us all, is that it?”

Connor looked away, but Gavin quickly got his attention again, “Hey, bring me a coffee  _ dipshit. _ ” They stood there silently for a second longer before the human detective’s impatience won out, “Get a move on!”

Connor turned abruptly and approached the counter. Gavin huffed with disbelief and looked at Tina, motioning to what the android was doing,  _ seriously? _ Connor was back in a second, a freshly brewed cup in hand held out to him. Gavin stared at him, at the coffee, and then shoved his hand away.

“That easy? You really  _ do  _ whatever people tell you to, don’t you?”

“I am only instructed to follow Lieutenant Anderson’s orders explicitly, unless they contradict the nature of my mission,” he replied, “All other demands, if harmless, are approved and can be carried out by my own judgement program.”

Gavin waited for the punchline. He waited for Connor to say ‘ _ psyche! _ ’ and dump his coffee, but the android just returned the hand holding the cup to its original position; offered out to Gavin. He couldn’t believe it.

“I believe… Detective,” he continued, “That we got off on the wrong foot. I am aware that some humans may be uncomfortable around the presence of androids, but I hope that we can overcome that obstacle in order to proceed with our investigation and build comradery.”

Gavin took the cup then, watching Connor while taking a drink. A small smile crept it’s way on the plastic’s lips, pleased. He held the cup out in front of him and Connor reached to take it back, but the detective dropped it before he could get a grip. The cup hit the ground with a splash, spilling the dark liquid on the floor and seeping over Connor’s shoes.

Gavin waited for something, anything, but the android just stared down at the growing puddle.  _ Sad _ .

“Do yourself a favor,” he began low, so Tina wouldn’t hear him, “and delete that program. It ain’t doing shit for you. Grow a spine, or stay out of my fucking way.”

Connor stared at him wordlessly, blank like a doll, and Gavin turned on his heel to leave. He snapped his fingers in Tina’s direction and the cop followed him out, sparing a glance at the android.

“...What the fuck?” she asked as they approached his desk.

“Those things are pathetic,” he concluded, pulling out his chair, “‘Comradery’?  _ Seriously?  _ If I had done that to Hank, he would have drawn his gun on me. That thing? That  _ plastic?  _ Fucking took it like a bitch.”

“Well, that’s what they’re here for,” she shrugged, “I’m surprised he didn’t drop down to the floor and clean it up as soon as it happened.”

“I think I might have kicked him if he had,” Gavin watched the machine follow Hank into Fowler’s office and sneered, “Douchebag. I hope Fowler’s assigning Anderson with babysitting duty now.”

Tina chuckled, “I give it three cases before the old drunk breaks the thing.”

“Wow,” Gavin raised his brows, “You’re being optimistic. What happened to my old, cynical Tina, hm? Seriously, Harry’s coffee and now Hank’s self control?”

“What do you say?”

“They won’t even finish the first.”

“I’ll take that bet,” she smirked and shook his hand before strolling back across the room. Gavin spun back around to his desk and logged into the console. He had a few new emails, all red ice affiliated crimes and cursed. It was better than working on androids, but fuck, Hank had the highest arrest record with red ice busts and dealers; the fact that Gavin’s living in his shadow now pissed him off.

But still… It’s better than androids.

 

* * *

 

“Camden… fucking Camden. This is a goddamn  _ android  _ associated kidnapping, why the fuck am I here?”

“Better to knock out the search now before the trail runs cold. With everyone here we’ll be done canvasing the place by noon,” Ben explained easily, like it made perfect sense to pull Gavin, who was in the middle of a separate case, out for some ‘where’s waldo’.

“Fucking waste of time.” 

Gavin wanted to punch whoever reported the sighting. The AX400 model that attacked her owner and ran off with his kid was seen stealing money at the 24/7 store. The guy who had called it in was no help, most of his statement was him describing what had happened during the hockey game last night and less on where the androids ran off to.

Gavin didn’t approve of kidnapping, but he had overheard the father giving his statement to Wilson a couple of hours before and man, that guy was a piece of work. Something about his behavior made him think he was a user too ( _ red puffy eyes, sniffling, slurring words) _ so he carefully filed that away in the back of his mind; ya know, just in case.

“I’ll survey the left side of the intersection,” he declared, “and when I find nothing there, I’ll return to the station and finish doing my  _ actual  _ job.”

“Which would be what, harassing witnesses and drinking coffee?”

“Glad to see my skill set is being acknowledged,” he winked. Ben rolled his eyes and resumed tapping away on is tablet, God it was impossible to get that thing away from him.

Gavin made an effort to wander away from the crowd of roaming policemen. They stood out like a sore thumb in their black and blue uniforms, if the deviant was here she’d know exactly who to avoid. The detective, however, was in his usual leather brown jacket and had his badge and his gun tucked away; to anyone who didn’t know him he looked like a civilian.

For that reason, he leaned against the bus stop and lit up a cigarette. He kept his eyes peeled for anyone looking skeevy or nervous, but a lot of people were eyeing the cops strangely so  _ that  _ didn’t help much. Who wouldn’t be though? Two’s a crowd, three’s a party, and apparently four or more was a manhunt. 

All he knew about the model was it’s type and it’s primary function: a homemaker. He didn’t know much about deviancy though, only that it seemed to be triggered and wondered what the hell could have happened to have sent them away from home. As far as he could tell, cooking and cleaning had to be the easiest function an android could have. She was running with a child unit that was believed to be human ( _ if what the bastard said about the unauthorized LED removal was true. That was a crime within itself so people  _ shouldn’t  _ be lying about it _ ). With those assumptions, Gavin was able to narrow down the area. 

There was a home across the street from the store that had been foreclosed on months ago; the lack of care gave it a horror movie vibe, but Connor and Hank had already begun their investigation there. If there was anything noteworthy, the whole squad would be notified so there was no point in searching himself.

The second place was the motel to his left, which would make the most sense for an android with motherly instincts. They’d want to keep the kid out of the cold, but most motels didn’t offer services to androids. He could see the sign on the door that proved it as well, so that was out. 

The last was highly unlikely, and Gavin almost completely scrapped it if not for Sherlock’s rule of thumb. ‘ _ When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth’ or some shit.  _ Next to the decrepit house was a small, dodgy little parking lot that Gavin often caught junkies cowering at. There was an abandoned car, which smelled like death itself, but under the cover of night and heavy rain it was the perfect spot to lay low.

Whenever Gavin had a slow day, he would think of all the crimes he could theoretically get away with, how he would escape the city and pull a Kamski (maybe he’d live on the outskirts of Arizona, get a big open house that overlooked the desert. He preferred the heat over snow  anyways) But with that aside, his third go to for dodging people would be that lot.

While the cops had started shuffling onto the private property, Gavin saw the gate to the area open and a woman with a blonde pixie cut peek around the corner. She eye’d the men in uniform as they passed and waited for them to be completely gone before slipping out in the open. Behind her a little girl in damp clothing clutched the back of her oversized jacket, looking equally as careful and nervous.

Gavin narrowed his eyes as he watched the woman take the girl’s hand and start walking. As Pearson and Brown made their way over to the house, the blonde pushed the little girl behind the closest bus stop and turn her back to them.

_ … Well isn’t that just suspicious as hell. _

Gavin took one final drag, snubbed the cigarette and blew out the smoke as he pushed himself off his post. The woman pushed through the crowd, eyes alert but body language reading relaxed.

Gavin let her walk past and in the process got a good look at their faces. She was indeed an AK400 model, and the girl was a YK500. Both were the same androids the jackass from the station reported missing, and what are the fucking odds of two  _ other  _ androids matching that same description would be travelling together without their LEDs?

The detective started in on them, staying a few feet behind for caution. The AK’s peripheral was amazing, he had to give her credit for that. She sensed the cops approaching before Gavin would have been able to notice and consistently pulled themselves aside in a manner that didn’t feel natural but didn’t particularly scream ‘Don't look at me’.

She crossed the street twice, and on the third time looked a little panicked when she didn’t have any solid cover to duck behind. Gavin used this opening to grab an umbrella out of a stand and click it open.

“Excuse me ma’am,” he began, covering them in a way that blocked the walking officer’s view. His free hand fiddled with the cuffs in his pocket,“I believe you dropped something.”

“I-I… I’m…,” She looked startled, unsure of how to reply with her gaze flickering between himself and the policeman, “Th-Thank you, what was it?”

“Oh, nothing too important I don’t think. The rain wouldn’t have damaged it,” he pretended to struggle with his pocket for effect. The android hesitated before reaching her hand out, and when her wrist was fully exposed Gavin slipped the cuffs free and locked one onto her, “Just your cover.”

The YK model gasped ( _ “Kara!”) _ and tried using the grip she had on  _ Kara’s  _ hand to pull her free.

“I like your new look,” Gavin pressed, ‘cause he was a little shit and enjoyed the look of fear in her eye, “I didn’t know you plastics could change your appearance, but then again you gotta  _ think  _ for yourselves in order to do that. Now give me  _ one  _ good reason not to drag your ass to my squad car, hm?”

“Please,” she begged, “Let us go. We've done nothing wrong-”

“I'd say stealing private property is pretty wrong, wouldn't you Barbie?”

“You don't know what it was like,” her voice was shaking, which he found odd for a machine, “You weren't there. He's a monster.”

_ Monster.  _ The word brought back a memory. A damp night, a shuddering android, blood on synthetic skin. 

He thought of her, of the girl with practically no clothes, how damaged she was and how his fucking bleeding heart led him to help her..

Gavin relaxed his grip, “So tell me.”

She froze. The homemaker model stared at him in disbelief, “What are you…?”

“What, did you damage your ears when you cut your hair? Tell me why you deviated,” Gavin didn't know what the fuck was coming over him. His head was cloudy, thinking of snow storms, torn silicon bodies, an overturned transport unit,  _ anger,  _ “What happened that night?”

Kara was speechless. Her mouth open and closed a few times but no words came out. Their moment was ruined when a yell emerged from the house down the road. Connor had stumbled out into the street, an android with deep gashes in his face wrapped tightly around his body in pseudo straight jacket, but the RK800 model easily broke free.

“They were here!” He yelled, head spinning in every direction, “They’re hiding in plain sight!”

The child unit gasped in fear and clung tighter to Kara. With Connor in such a frantic state, the other officers scrambled around the scene, running up and down the street in search of the android.

Gavin cursed and pulled out his keys, quickly locating the one for the cuffs and releasing Kara. He pushed her forward, grabbed the little girl by the wrist, and headed off down the street with the two of them towing behind him. His strides were long and he could feel the two struggling to keep up ( _ how oddly human for something so perfectly designed) _ .

“Where were you headed?” He asked, his pace fast and persistent.

“Th-the train. We're looking for someone who can help us across town,” she supplied, and Gavin made a sharp right down an alley. It was the quickest way to the station he knew and avoided crossing that disaster of a freeway. 

He stopped midway through and released the two. The child shoved him away hugged Kara around her waist tightly, hiding her head in the older android's side. Gavin reached for his wallet and shuffled through the bills until he counted twenty dollars worth and pulled it out.

“The station is not far from here. Use the middle cars; they are the least conspicuous since we tend to look for people who don't belong in the front and the back, those are the closest points to the station exits,” he advised, “If you're caught again you’re fucking dead, so don’t walk around looking so obvious. Smile, make eye contact, we hate that shit.”

If Kara still had her LED he assumed it would be spinning yellow with how focused she was processing his instruction, “Got it. Eye contact, middle cars.” 

“Be damn grateful it was me that found you. Here,” Gavin held out the money, tapping his foot impatiently while Kara stared at it dumbstruck, “Take the money or don’t, but for fuck’s sake make up your goddamn mind!”

The child was shaken out of her stupor and detached herself momentarily to take the cash on their behalf. 

“Smart girl,” he nodded, “The trains run every 15 minutes, so you've got a little less than 10 to catch the next one.”

He turned to leave, sliding his phone out of his pocket when Kara’s stuttering voice stopped him.

“He... He has a temper,” she began, staring at the ground, “he took it out on her, on me. I had only been back a day after repairs when he tried to hurt her. I could have stayed in the dining room, I could have reasoned with him, or I…” she shivered, Gavin noticed as he turned to face her, “I knew where he hid his gun. I could have killed him, but all I could hear was Alice, her crying and I…”

Alice, the child unit, moved closer, reaching for her hand, “Kara….”

“I have to protect Alice,” she concluded, looking at Gavin with a fire in her eyes, “We’re all we have now.”

Gavin nodded, thinking. He jutted his chin towards the direction of the station, “You've got less than 5 minutes now. I suggest you run.”

Kara nodded and looked down at Alice, “Let's go.” 

Gavin turned away and started dialing Ben’s number when he felt a heavy, warm force cling to his side. Startled, the detective looked down and saw a pair of small arms wrapped around his waist.

“Alice!’ Kara called, but just as quickly as the contact came, it was gone. The child looked up at him with her freckled peppered face and soft brown eyes,  _ scary how real they can look _ .

“Thank you,” soft, quiet, but full of gratitude. Gavin had never received such sincerity before. Not since his mother…

He fought (and lost) the urge to rustle her hair and winked at her, “Don't mention it kid. Now scram.”

Alice nodded and walked back to Kara. They joined hands, smiled at each other, and then took off down the street; Gavin didn't make the call until they were out of sight.

“Hey Ben, yeah it's me. Bad news, I saw the androids bolt across the freeway. I think they’re planning on moving through the sewers...Well, doesn’t matter. They're long gone now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on introducing RK900 (Nines) in chapter 3 or 4, but i was not kidding when I say this is the slowest of slow burns.
> 
>  
> 
> Also i've been drinking, so sorry if nothing makes sense. I may go back and edit it in the morning. or not. well see.


	3. Night of the 6th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively, "the martyr and the murder"

 

**November 6th (cont.)**

 

Two domestic abuse calls, one noise complaint, and three junkies later, Gavin had finished his meal at Johnny Rockets and wiped whatever crumbs were clinging to his shirt off. He was tired, overworked, and a bit irritated for having to do other Officers jobs.

The station was flooding with case files, specifically Android ones, but most cases that involved Android's were ones associated with spouses cheating on each other with the machines, or claiming that their neighbors were stealing their shit through them. With so many to address in one day, it really was all hands deck. That's why Gavin found himself doing grunt work again, and he remembered why he hated it.

Keys out, a tune stuck in his head, and with a belly full of food, the detective made his way down the street. He was now officially ready to take on the night shift.

But hey, all good things come to an end eventually.

Gavin turned the corner and promptly ran into a tall dark figure. If this was anything like those soaps that played on late night cable ( _wow, that's a phrase older than time_ ), this would be the part where he was stabbed and left for dead until the love of his life came running down the street to save him.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he hissed, his hand going for his gun, “Who the hell are you and why are you lurking back here?”

As if in a movie, the figure stepped out into the light. Tall and dark indeed, Gavin laid eyes upon a TR400 model; those had been decommissioned nine months prior for their intimidating structure and error in their programing. Ironically, they were the first known model’s to go deviant. This one _particularly_ so.

“Hello Detective,” the android greeted, his LED spinning red as he stared at the gun, “I am in need of your assistance again.”

“The hell you doin’ back here?” Gavin hissed, sheathing the weapon and pushing him further into the alley, “Your ass should be in Canada. _Canada._ Not fucking Detroit.”

“That was my intent after we parted ways. When the transport ran out of energy, we were stranded outside of town. A few of us had offered to scout ahead for any fuel or other alternatives. That’s when we were found by a man called Zlatko Andronikov.”

Gavin brows furrowed together, processing, “I know that name. He’s on our watch list under suspicion of dealing in android parts illegally.”

“Indeed he was.”

The silence was almost tangible as the implication of those words hit the detective.

“Oh shit,” Gavin sighed, rubbing his hand over his face, “How many of you did he take Luther?”

Luther avoided eye contact, “Aside from the six that had left to seek other means, he had all of us.”

“Phck...” he muttered under his breath, pacing as the thought about that truck. When Gavin had first encountered Luther and the others, there had been at least 30 working androids in the cargo hold, “What did he do to them?”

“Those of us that weren't reset and sold were saved as… experiments,” the android looked unsure of how to proceed, “He turned them into monsters, RA9.”

“I’ve told you not to call me that,” he said exasperatedly, “Where are the others now?”

“At the house still. One of the new androids that came for help was able to escape from his machine before he could reset her. She had freed the others and as a result...”

“I hope they killed the bastard.”

“They did.”

Gavin nodded, “Good. Is that why you’ve found me again?”

“I have joined the woman and her little one,” Luther turned and started to walk down the sidewalk. Gavin fell into step next to him, “We’re going to Canada together, but we need your help once more. I apologize for seeking you out like this, but regarding the circumstances I’ve come from, there is no one else I can turn to...”

“I get it big guy,” Gavin patted his arm, “but I can’t take you to the border. I ain’t Harriet Tubman and there is no underground railroad.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Gavin sighed, _my humor is wasted,_ “Read a book when you’re in Canada. I can’t help you personally. I've got a deviant hunter assigned to my precinct that's too nosy for his own good… but I know someone who can.”

The detective grabbed Luther by the arm suddenly and held him back. A patrol car was driving by leasurey and came to a stop in front of the two. The windows rolled down and a cop Gavin had only really seen in passing smiled up at him.

“Hey Detective… what was it again?”

“Reed.”

“Right, Reed. Names James Johnson. I’ve seen you around the station a couple of times but I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.”

“No way that’s your name man. Did your parents hate you?”

“Ouch, little harsh don’t you think?”

“Not as harsh as _James Johnson._ Whaddya want?”

The cop looked shocked, “Whoa, no need to get aggressive with me sir. I just recognized you and wanted to say hi.”

“Yeah? Then you should also recognize that I’m a _little_ preoccupied at the moment,” he motioned to Luther, “So why don’t _you_ go back to your job so _I_ can get back to mine, hm?”

The cop, James Johnson, looked astonished; like he didn’t know how to take in the personality that was Gavin Reed. He glared as he rolled his window up and Gavin could hear the butt end of ‘Asshole’ come from him.

“Prick,” he snapped back as the car drove off. He could see Luther trying to fight off his amused grin and failing miserably, “Shut up.”

“I can see you have not changed since our last encounter. Tell me, RA9, why do you come off so hostile?”

“Don’t call me that,” he motioned for Luther to continue walking and followed, “It keeps people off my case. They take one look at me and think, ‘Ah, it’s that asshole’ and then stay the fuck away. Let’s me do whatever I want without eyes over my shoulder.”

“I am sure there are other approaches you can take.”

“Yeah, but this is more fun,” he chuckled, slowly trailing off and the two walked in a comfortable silence. Gavin didn’t speak again until he felt the early signs of the evening cold send goosebumps down his skin, “But yeah, I have someone in mind you can get help from.”

Luther glanced at him sideways, “Forgive me if my recent experience with humans has me a bit… skeptical.”

“There is a woman named Rose Chapman that lives on the outskirts of the city. She has a small farm, quiet and isolated. Three months ago her husband was murdered Downtown while trying to sell their crop at a farmers market. I was the guy on the case, caught the bastard, and in the process got to know her a little. She’s a sympathizer, or whatever the fuck they’re called. Since she’s so close to the border, she sneaks plastics that come her way across the...”

Luther stopped next to a white car and nodded, “She’s trustworthy?”

Gavin smiled, thinking of the curvacious woman and her tough love attitude, “She’s the mother any guy would be lucky to have. Tough and determined. You’re in good hands with her.”

“Unfortunately, I wouldn’t know that feeling,” he replied almost distantly, “But I imagine I will once I meet her.”

Gavin nodded and patted down his pants until he found where he stored his pen, “Gimme your hand big guy.”

Luther extended his arm, palm up and the detective scribbled the farm’s address across it, cursing frequently under his breath about the pen’s unreliability as it kept shorting on ink, “If that place is a bust, you should consider going to Jericho.”

“I’ve heard of it, but the location is rooted somewhere deep in the city. I want to get out as soon as possible, not linger inside.”

“I get it,” he capped his pen and dropped it back in his pocket, “Well… I guess this is where we part ways. Again. And for your sake, I hope I never see you after this.”

Luther smiled, placing a large hand on Gavin’s shoulder and giving him a light squeeze, “I cannot thank you enough, RA9. Twice you have saved my life, my people. Your name is a prayer whispered in our code, and because of you we stand a chance. We have hope.”

“I’ve told you again and again, that isn’t my name,” Gavin huffed exasperatedly, “You’re making me out to be this great guy, and lemme tell you I am the exact _opposite_ of that. Ask anyone.”

“I’m sure many will disagree with you,” Luther turned to the vehicle, the synthetic skin on his hand peeled back as he placed it on the side and watched the door slide open. Inside, the blonde android from before ( _Kara_ ) was sitting in the front seat while Alice slept in the back. Gavin’s brows shot up in surprise, “These two will at least.”

“Hello again,” Kara smiled, “RA9, was it?”

“N-no,” he coughed indignantly, “This is getting old. I have a name.”

“First impressions are a powerful thing,” Luther reached out and squeezed his bicep, right where his tattoo was located, “I will never forget you, and I hope I am not wrong to call you a friend.”

Gavin didn’t know how to respond to that. These plastics… months ago he hated them with a burning passion. If he had been asked before about his thoughts on deviants and androids in general, he would have punched whoever did in the mouth cause he wouldn’t have wasted his time on those lesser-humans. But now, these machines that had only just started to learn how to think and act for themselves.

They were actually grateful to him.

To _him._

Gavin smiled, “Call me whatever you want, not like I can stop you anyway. Now get outta my face. If anyone sees us they might start to think I’m a nice guy.”

Luther laughed and ducked his way into the car, “Stay safe friend. A change is happening in Detroit, and whether you believe it or not you are the root of it.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to fuck off before you actually do? I’m sounding like a broken record here.”

“Goodbye,” Kara waved, and the door finally slid close. Gavin took a step back on the sidewalk and watched the autonomous vehicle pull out onto the road. The lone machine disappeared into the quiet of the night, and Gavin felt lonely for the first time in what felt like months.

He shivered, kicked a rock that was by his foot ( _just cause_ ) and headed back to his car. He didn’t realize how far he and Luther had walked, so the trip was long, cold and quiet. It left him alone with his thoughts, something he tried to avoid recently. With that alone as an incentive, he quickly picked up the pace.

Gavin had barely slipped into his car when the police scanner crackled to life.

“ _Calling Detective Reed, I’ve got a 1-8-7, repeat a 1-8-7 at Eden’s Club downtown. Your services are needed._ ”

He checked his location and sighed, realizing he was only actually a couple blocks away. He grabbed the receiver and replied, “10-4, ETA 5 minutes.”

Gavin rummaged around in his glove box for a fresh pack of cigarettes, slid them into his jacket, and pulled out on the road. He had a job to do after all.

 

* * *

 

He honestly shouldn’t have been surprised to see Hank and his toy show up. He was more surprised that they had shown up as soon as they had. Gavin concluded that the plastic asshole probably went to the Lieutenant’s house and dragged his ass out. Guess he was good for something.

“Lieutenant Anderson and his plastic pet,” he greeted, “The fuck are you two doing here?”

“We’ve been assigned all cases involving androids,” Connor replied dutifully, eyes already scanning the environment.

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re wasting your time,” he turned back to the body sprawled out on the bed, “Just some pervert who, uh, got more action than he could handle.”

Gavin laughed at the thought, a heart attack doing this guy in. What a way to go. He couldn’t decide if that was how he’d like to go or not, but that was a thought he could revisit later at a bar.

“We’ll have a look anyway, if you don’t mind,” Hank said, looking down at the android crumpled on the ground.

Gavin scoffed and shrugged. He looked at Chris and motioned with his chin, “C’mon, let’s go.”

He started for the door, smirking at Hank as he passed, “It’s, uh… starting to stink of booze in here...”

Gavin followed up by knocking his shoulder into Connor’s, he didn’t want the plastic pup to start feeling left out now, and entered the lobby. He strolled up to Ben and shoved his hands into his pockets, “So I guess Prick 1 and Prick 2 are gonna take another look around, conclude it was cardiac arrest, and write up the paperwork for it.”

“Cool it with the insults, Reed,” Ben chided, “Hank is still your superior, stop acting like such a brat.”

“Please Collins,” he laughed, “That asshole can barely pull his head outta a bottle long enough to process what I’m even saying. Gotta say though, with his new little sidekick this is the most active I’ve seen ‘im in a long time.”

“ _Gavin._ ”

“I’ll be out back for a smoke,” he waved the older man off and strolled through the lobby, checking out the dancers on the poles. The AP700 winked at him and curled his fingers in a “Come hither” gesture. _Nice try you synthetic blow up, but I like the people I fuck to have a_ mind _of its own._

When Gavin was outside, he took a moment to breathe and stare up at the sky. Snow had started to fall gently, and the detective knew it would be a bitch to deal with on the drive home. The roads had been layered with extra-friction inducing material, so for up to date, autonomous cars it would be no problem.

His car, however, a 2031 mustang, wasn’t quite as advanced.

“Shit,” he walked to his car parked in an alley around the corner. The whole area glowed a soft purple and made the red of his ride look black. He leaned against the hood, slipped out a cigarette and switched his lighter on.

The stick was tucked between his lips, his flame ready to go, but Gavin found himself distracted by the flickering light. It brought back unpleasant thoughts, which had been happening a lot these days, and he cursed. The winter always did this to him, only recently he had a lot more memories to focus on.

The fire made him think of his brother, Elijah. The fucking prodigal son of the Kamski bloodline. Not that Gavin was even worthy enough to be included in it. After all, he was illegitimate.  Nine months ago, he had driven up to Elijah’s secluded abode for a ‘friendly’ visit… which ended up not so _friendly_ …

Insults were thrown, blood was shed, and Gavin left in no state to drive.

The scar on his nose throbbed at the thought and he put out the flame. With a decision that was completely driven by spite and rage, he had started something that was essentially changing the world. He thought of Luther, Simon and the others, the Eden’s Club escapee, Kara and Alice… could they really be human?

And then he remembered Luther’s words, _Zlatko Andronikov…_

He pulled out his phone and dialed the station, “ _Detroit Police Department, what’s your emergency?_ ”

“Evening Tina, didn’t your shift end a couple of hours ago?”

“ _Since when the fuck is fate kind enough to give me a night off?_ ”

“Make your own destiny. Fight the system!”

“ _I am the system, jackass. What’s up?_ ”

“I need you to look up an address for Zlatko Andronikov and send a car over.”

“ _Why? We don’t have enough proof to bring him in._ ”

“I got a witness saying they may have seen something suspect. It’s not illegal to pop by and ask how he’s doing.”

“ _You know he’s gonna tell us to fuck off, yeah?_ ”

“Humor me Tina, and if you’re in tomorrow I’ll treat you to Harry’s.”

“ _Fuck Harry’s, I want the largest, blackest cup they have at Marianelli’s._ ”

“Wow, you want a coffin with that? Might as well bury you when you’re done.”

“ _Shut up, I’ll get his address and dispatch a car in a couple of minutes._ ”

“Let me know if you find anything.”

“ _Go to hell Reed._ ”

As he hung up something large and fast slammed into the side of his car, making enough noise to startle some alley cats down the street.

“What the fuck!?” enraged ( _and also frightened)_ at the potential damage to his baby, Gavin pulled his gun and aimed for the intruders. He stopped short at the sight of two tracis, barely clothed, with their hands holding each others tightly.

“Fuck me,” he muttered, “Two fucking deviants?”

“Help us,” The blue haired one said, “We need to get out. You can help us, can’t you?”

Gavin’s head spun around, expecting that pain in the ass duo to jump out of the shadows and make his life harder, “Were you followed?”

“We were cornered by the deviant hunter but...” they looked at each other, “He showed no signs of following.”

He wanted to laugh, _Connor having a change of heart?_ “Get in the back. Keep your head low and cover yourselves with whatever the fuck you can find there.”

Gavin unlocked the car and did another scope around the alleyway as the girls followed his instructions. He walked around to the driver’s side and had his hand on the door handle when-

“Reed!”

Fuck.

“What do you want Collins?” Gavin huffed, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Where are you going?”

“Home? Why? Shaggy and Scooby are the only ones actually assigned to android cases. I’m only here cause I was the first responder. I already told you I’m not gonna waste my time on a heart attack.”

“Jesus Reed, do you have your head so far up your ass that you can’t hear anything? The vic was _murdered_ , which I’m not surprised you missed. Strangled by one of the two androids he supposedly rented.”

“Well sorry I’m not a fucking machine that can _analyze_ corpses in real time.”

“They got away from Hank, so we’re being called in to do some patrolling around the area,” Ben tapped away on his tablet, “All hands on deck.”

“Nu-uh,” Gavin opened his door, “My shift is over, my patience is gone, and I’m not doing any voluntary shit with androids. As far as I’m concerned, this is Hank’s case, he can fucking deal with it.”

Ben sighed, “Gavin-”

“Get yourself some coffee Collins,” the mustang roared to life, “You’re gonna have a long night.”

Gavin didn’t bother with the volume of his radio as he sped away, but still managed to hear Ben’s defeated ‘fucking hell’.

As Styx’s   _Renegade_ played his exit onto the main road, Gavin finally gave in and turned the volume down low enough to talk to the girls, “So… You murdered the pervert?”

“You saw what he did to the other girl, didn’t you?” the blue haired traci snapped, cuddling close to her…. Sister? Lover? “I was next, I had no choice. I won’t leave her alone, and if you even think-”

“Whoa, take it easy. You think I’d let you in my car if I had some sort of death wish?”

“Your partner told you I killed a man, detective. Why _didn’t_ you give us up?”

Gavin glanced at the mirror, being met with two stares back, “I’ve got questions of my own, plastic. Why ask for help in the first place? Why not knock me out, steal my car, and drive off into the sunset?”

“We would have,” the short haired tracie answered, “but we know your face and you… You’ll help us. You have helped others like us.”

Gavin slammed on the breaks, sending everything in the car lurching forward. His day old coffee spilled into the cup holder, but he didn’t care. He spun around and glared at them darkly, “How the fuck do you know that?”

“How do you think others knew about Zlatko?” She snapped back, “About the deviant hunter? RA9? We’re connected better than you think. We _know_ about you Detective Reed. We know all about you.”

Gavin stared at them shell shocked; here he thought he was flying under the radar, but if one of the deviants were to ever be caught, fuck, he could be outed as easily as that. Luther wasn’t kidding, “I should fucking toss your asses to the curb.”

“You won’t,” the blue haired one spoke again, “You’re in too deep to want out now. If you didn’t want to be involved, you should have kept driving all those months ago.”

‘Fucking shit,” he groaned, and continued on, “You know about that too?”

The girls giggled, “Haven’t you been listening? We know everything.”

Gavin didn’t say anything. Fuck, what else could he say? The deviants had their sight on him, and apparently had enough evidence to know he was… no. He wasn’t on their side, not intentionally. He had mixed feelings on these pseudo-humans ever since he laid eyes on the prototypes in his parent’s garage. Elijah and his fucking _toys_.

Gavin pulled to a stop outside of the train station. The glow of “Ferndale” barely illuminated the streets, but it was enough for him to avoid crushing a can as he stepped out of the car. Gavin held us hand up when he passed the windows, signalling the girls to stay inside while he rummaged through his trunk.

He had his gym bag stuffed with three day old workout clothes and a trench coat from a flasher that suddenly went nudist when arrested. Gavin returned to the back door and opened it up, tossing the clothes inside.

“It doesn’t smell the best,” he began, “But it’s better than what you’re wearing. Get out when you’re dressed.”

“Thank you,” the short haired one replied. Gavin grunted at that and slammed the door shut. He leaned against it and lit his cigarette, taking a drag and nodding in greeting at a couple and their android walking home from the station.

He had only smoked half of the stick before he heard a knock at the window and stepped aside.

The tracis… well, their beauty wasn’t completely decimated by his wrinkled clothes, but they didn’t look like they’d be turning heads anytime soon.

“This is the farthest I can take you without spooking an entire army of deviants,” Gavin began and motioned to the wall of graffiti, “Scan it, there should be something there for you. Or so I’m told.”

The androids looked at the mural silently, their LED’s spinning yellow for only a moment before mellowing out into a soft blue. They turned to each other and confirmed what they had seen before looking at Gavin.

“Alright fleshlights,” he huffed, dropping his stub and grinding out the flame, “You’re on your own. Find Jericho, plan your ‘great escape’, have a giant orgy or whatever the fuck you shits do, but don’t let me catch you agai-”

The tracis rushed him, and Gavin was quick to reach for his gun. He had a hand on the trigger, ready to unholster it before he felt arms wrap around him in…

A hug?

The blue haired android had her arms around his neck, while her partner (yeah, _that_ kind of partner) managed to cuddle in on his side. His fingers twitched on his gun; he stayed frozen for what felt like ages before relaxing enough to remove his hand.

“Thank you,“ they said in an eerie synchronization of voices that only androids could pull off.

“Yeah, yeah,” he slung an arm around each of them and squeezed briefly, _what is up with everyone touching me? Jesus_ , “Take care of yourselves. No more murdering unless they deserve it.”

“He did.”

“Good.”

They laughed and withdrew themselves. The girls looked at each other, twin smiles on their faces and held each other’s hand. Gavin leaned back against the car and watched them go, just in case they decided to deviate again ( _ha_ ). He saw them disappear behind a chain linked fence and stayed there until the incessant flutter of snow covered their footprints.

The detective sneezed into his sleeve and sniffed wetly.

“Damn my fucking bleeding heart,” he muttered and climbed back into his car. He drove off, singing along with the opening lines of Elton John’s _Tiny Dancer_ under his breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say? I'm on a roll. For sure RK900 is coming in beginning of next chapter. Sorry guys, I wanted to follow the game timeline and it made no sense to throw him in when Connor was just developing a relationship with Hank. Makes sense now though kekekeke
> 
> Kudos and comments appreciated!
> 
> The next update is probably gonna be Wednesday though, I gotta have something to post that day with the rate I'm knocking these out.
> 
> Side note, what do you guys think of me pulling scenes and dialogue from the games cut scenes? Personally I enjoy it cause it's like "could this have been happening during the game??" At least that's the vibe I'm going for.


	4. November 7th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin, your life is hard

**November 7th**

 

Hank intercepted Gavin a day later in the lobby.

“Reed,” he began in lieu of a morning greeting, “Jeffrey wants to see you. Do me a favor and… keep your head cool.”

Despite the heat from the cardboard coffee cup burning through his hand, Gavin felt himself go cold, “It’s too early for this shit Anderson. The fuck you talking about?”

Hank didn’t go into any detail and just pat his shoulder, “Keep it cool.”

Yeah, like  _ that  _ would help. Gavin pushed past the lieutenant and slid his badge over the key card reader. His walk into the office was slow as he scanned the area for whatever Hank could have been referring to. His gaze landed on the windowed office, where inside a tall stoic figure stood perfectly still.

Fowler wanted to see him, Hank told him to keep a level head, and there was an android in the office.

He stopped by Tina’s desk, placed the coffee on the counter and sighed, “Oh hell no.”

She grinned ferally, “Oh  _ hell  _ yes.”

Gavin turned to leave and stepped right into the captain himself.

“Detective Reed,” he greeted, “I’m sure Hank gave you my message.”

“Morning Captain. Bye Captain.”

“If you leave then leave your badge with me. You won’t be needing it.”

Gavin stared at him long and hard before he cursed under his breath and turned back around. He practically stomped his way across the precinct, shoving past other officers as they crossed his path until he was in the glass office.

The android watched him enter and holy shit-

“The fuck you want? Don’t you have a disgruntled booze head to babysit?” He snapped and looked back to the Lieutenant’s desk where… Connor was already sitting with Hank. He looked back at android’s double and realized very quickly that they weren’t entirely the same. 

Although the resemblance was uncanny, this Connor had piercing blue eyes, the color of ice, and a white blazer that read  _ RK900 _ . Where Connor had the lost puppy look that Gavin assumed was designed specifically to make questioning easier, this one had a sharper jaw and a cold demeanor. The thing hadn’t even spoken and Gavin could already tell he was going to be an even bigger prick than the other one.

“The fuck, did that plastic pup reproduce? This is why you shouldn’t have taken ‘im to a sex club.”

“Sit down, Reed,” Fowler ordered, “My head is already killing me and I don’t need your shitty attitude making it worse.”

Gavin slumped down in one of the seats and spun around so he could keep his eyes on the plastic, “The fuck is this, then?”

“ _ This  _ is a gift from Elijah Kamski himself.”

“Return it.”

“We won’t.”

“Then scrap it.”

“Reed,” He began.

“I know this information isn't 'public knowledge’, but I refuse to accept  _ anything _ from that narcissistic, philosophical  _ dipshit.” _

“You probably haven't notice detective, with your head shoved up your ass as Collins put it, but we have been  _ flooded  _ with red ice and deviant cases!” Fowler slammed his hands on the desk as he stared his subordinate down, “I've already got Anderson and his android on the deviants, but I need to cover the other side of the court. That's where you and RK900 come in.”

“‘900’?” Gavin looked back at the model, “The big brother?”

“If we’re speaking with technicalities, detective,” the Android began and, fuck, what was with that voice? “RK800 is my predecessor, and therefore would be considered the eldest. I am the most efficient and up-to-date model CyberLife has to offer.”

Gavin laughed, “I don't care if you’re made of gold and can sing the alphabet backwards, I ain't doing shit with you.”

RK900 raised a brow at that, “Do you consider reciting the alphabet backwards as valuable as gold, detective?”

He was speechless. Gavin slowly turned back to Fowler, who looked like he was hiding a smirk, “From Elijah, you say?”

“Correct. I've already been registered as your android, Detective Reed,” the android replied instead, “I support all of the same functions as my previous model, as well as enhancements and new features. This will make hunting red ice dealers and deviants more efficient, should we finish our assigned cases early.”

“He's yours starting today,” Fowler finally added, “take him into the field, see how well he works, and for God's sakes Gavin, use the resources you've been given.”

Gavin sat in his chair like a petulant child. He was a damn fine detective on his own. He's had the most closed cases on red ice and other illegal dealings since Anderson and could get a perp to  _ sing _ in the interrogation room. What kind of punishment was this?

“What the fuck ever,” he shoved himself from the chair and headed to the door, “Let's kick rocks, tin can.”

“Right behind you meat sack.”

Fuck his life,  _ and fuck you Elijah _ . Gavin would be lucky if he could make it to his desk without smashing the machine’s face in. He heard Tina cackling from the other side of the room as he sat down and flipped the bird in her general direction. RK900 took a seat at the desk in front of his and crossed his arms over his chest, uncharacteristic from Connor’s hands folded in his lap.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Gavin snapped.

“I believe this act is called ‘sitting’, Detective,” He replied dully, “I am led to believe that standing for long periods of time make humans uncomfortable, so I am trying to accommodate as best as I can.”

“Your fucking existence makes people uncomfortable. That’s Chris’s desk, who gave you permission to sit there?”

RK900 raised his brows, feigning surprise (Gavin realized very quickly a good amount of his sass came from those brows. He began making plans to shave them), “Oh my. It seems you were not informed of Officer Miller’s relocation. For maximum efficiency, I recommended to Captain Fowler that we be in close proximity and suggested Officer Miller take up residence at the desk across from Officer Chen.”

“I love this,” Tina grinned upon her arrival and pulled out her phone, “I love this so much. I’m taking a photo, get in closer.”

“Fuck no and fuck you,” he spat, but RK900 rolled his seat a little closer and uncrossed his arms. Tina took a picture and laughed harder, already in the process of sending it around the office.

“It seems my sleepless nights have been rewarded. I’ve been blessed with a front row seat in watching your life fall apart.”

“Seriously,  _ fuck off. _ ”

“Do you require some assistance, Officer Chen?” the android asked, and Gavin shot him a glare.

“Yeah, actually. As much as I love to visit the office’s asshole, I have an update on the favor you called in last night,” Tina held out a tablet to the detective with a case file already pulled up, “Your tip was good. Zlatko was found dead in his backyard at 11:53 last night, killed by his own androids. Stabbed to death.”

Gavin huffed, glancing at RK900 to see if he was paying attention. The LED on his forehead spun yellow, so he assumed the douche was downloading the file, “Let me guess, 28 times?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

He shrugged, “It’s an android thing.”

Tina gave him a funny look but pressed on, “We investigated his house and found hundreds of android parts from disassembled bodies; there was even an enhanced polar bear in the upstairs bedroom.”

“No shit, really?”

“Yeah. Fucking weird. There was also several crates of red ice in the basement; could be a dealer.”

“I’ve just finished analyzing all the files the officers pulled from his computers,” RK900 interrupted, “He had extensive spreadsheets with lists of names, numbers, and drop off locations.”

“I'm sensing a 'but’ there,” Gavin grumbled, cause nothing ever went smoothly for him.

“ _ But  _ there appeared to be a fail safe in the system. A majority of the information was corrupted upon extraction.”

Gavin straightened up, “How much information did we lose?”

His LED continued to spin in dizzying circles, “I've been able to pull a couple of names from the files. One of them, however,has been here recently.”

“Well fucking spit it out, who?”

“...Todd Williams. 43 years old, is currently living in Corktown and has several criminal records involving drug dealing and violent misdemeanors. He recently filed a report on his missing YK500 and AX400 unit. We could start there, Detective?”

Gavin, god how he hated to admit it, was impressed. He remembered the greasy asshole and knew something was up with that dude, “Well… guess you’re good for something. Let’s go.”

Gavin stood and grabbed his gun off the desk. RK900 followed him, but the two were stopped at Connor’s call.

“Detective Reed. If I may, I would like to pass on some information from our investigation that may be useful to you,” Connor held out his hand, synthetic skin peeling back.

“Fucking disgusting,” he said instead and waved his hand dismissively at the pair. Although he had turned away from them, Gavin couldn’t help but peek from his peripheral as RK900 copied his predecessor and offered his own hand. The two grabbed each other by the forearm, eyes blinking rapidly as information was sent and downloaded. 

It was like his mind was playing tricks on him. The two were nearly identical,  it was crazy. Gavin wondered idly what would happen if he called Connor. Maybe both would turn their heads? Did his unit even have a name?

“You tin cans finished? I’d like to get moving sometime today,” he snapped with impatience.

Their LED’s returned blue and the two pulled away from each other.

“Thank you for your input RK800,” Gavin’s android,  _ that felt weird,  _ replied, “If we find anything of use, I will send it over.”

“Please, call me Connor,” he smiled, then looked at Gavin, “Detective.”

“Dipshit.”

RK900’s face twitched a little, but he said nothing as the other android returned to Hank. With the two of them done, Gavin took it as a sign to move on and headed for the exit. He was taking the stairs two at a time and realized rather quickly he had left his jacket in the precinct.

“Mother fucker,” he shivered and turned to go back for it, but RK900 was right behind him, jacket in hand, staring down like a statue, “Shit! Fuckin’ make some noise would you?”

“Your coat, Detective,” he held it out, “There is an 80% chance of snow today, it would be unwise to leave it behind.”

Gavin snatched it back from him with a glare and tugged it on, “Let’s get a move on, you oversized roomba.”

“Certainly.”

Well... This was gonna be a long day.

 

* * *

 

“Detroit Police, open up!” Gavin pounded on the door, “We have some follow up questions for you Mr. Williams. The sooner you answer them the sooner we’ll be on our way!”

There was silence. Gavin looked to RK900 with frustration, “I don’t know what I find more annoying, your ugly mug or this guy taking his goddamn time.”

“I can understand his hesitancy to cooperate,” he replied, “If you were at my front door, I would have a difficult time deciding to answer as well.”

“Cog sucker.”

The tell-tale sign of a deadbolt ended their stare off. Todd Williams, still as nasty looking as ever, cracked the door open as far as the chain lock would let him and glared at the two, “The fuck you want? You should be looking for my androids.”

“Pleasure to meet you too Mr. Williams,” Gavin glared as he pulled out his badge, “I’m Detective Gavin Reed. You gonna let us in?”

Todd hesitated, as if thinking of the pros and cons to cooperating. The man’s eyes lingered on RK900, which Gavin found more than a little irritating, “You can come in, the bucket of bolts stays outside.”

“The ‘bucket of bolts’ comes in, or we take this outside.”

RK900 looked at Gavin but said nothing. Todd cursed and shoved the door close.

“If he doesn’t open the door in the next two minutes, you have my full permission to break it down.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary detective,” he mused, “Patience is a virtue.”

Gavin didn’t answer. He heard the steady sign of locks and bolts being turned, rather aggressively, if inanimate objects could sound like that, “Take a look around, don’t be fucking obvious. If anything sticks out, let me know.”

“Yes Detective.”

The door opened wide and Todd didn’t bother inviting them in. He walked further into the house where the TV was playing at some ridiculous volume. RK900 made a move to step inside, but Gavin grabbed him by the arm, “Guy owns a gun. Could be on or around ‘im.”

With his LED spinning yellow, RK900 nodded. Gavin pulled him back a little harsher than necessary and stepped in first. He looked around, noting the piles of trash scattered around the room (the whole house really). He had stacks of rejected loans and credit card requests on the dresser by the door and the dining room chairs were overturned. It looked like a fight had broke out.

“Well Detective? Ask your questions and get the fuck out,” Todd fell back on the couch and reached for a half drunk beer. RK900 went straight for the stairs so Gavin figured he’d just go ahead and start ripping into the guy. 

“Mr. Williams, how long have you had your androids for?”

“I’ve had Alice for two years, Kara for six months,” he burped.

“Any specific reason you bought them? The caretaker I get, but the kid?” 

“‘Cause I wanted them,” He glared, “How the hell is knowing that gonna help you?”

“I’m just tryna understand you a little more Mr. Williams,” Gavin hummed, examining the posters on the walls, “You used to work as a cabbie, yeah? I know the jobs not exactly glamorized, but you woulda made good money, what with all the techies flying in ‘n out of the city.”

“Yeah… Fuck CyberLife, and their fucking machines.”

“I can get behind your resentment. I've never been a fan of autonomous cars myself, I prefer being in control,” He wandered a little further into the kitchen and examined a jar labeled ‘Sugar’. He noticed something buried inside and reached in to grab it, “You look like a man who likes to be in control, Mr. Williams.”

“So?”

“So I’m sure when you lost your job... with that power taken away, you musta been mad huh?”

Todd glared, “Yeah? Who wouldn’t have been? One day you’re making a decent living and the next?  Sacked like a bag of shit!” 

Gavin turned the bag over in his hand and concluded it was red ice. He sighed and looked around for more. The idiot was too focused on the TV to notice, “But your wife was a city clerk, I'm sure she coulda set you up with something.”

“Oh yeah, sure. These days tech companies are  _ dying  _ to get their hands on high school dropouts.”

“Is that why she left you?”

Todd slammed the beer hard enough on the table to make the empty bottles clatter, “If you wanna keep your teeth Detective, you better shut the hell up about that whore.”

“What happened Mr. Williams?” Another bag hidden in the flour. Seemed like the man had a habit, “She frustrated with your lack of job? Or was that around the time you started using?”

“ _ Enough _ .”

“You needed money though, couldn’t survive alone on a clerk’s salary. Is that how you met Zlatko?”

Todd finally looked at him, a real rage that Gavin knew all too well burning in his eyes, “I think you've overstayed your welcome detective.”

Gavin walked to the coffee table and threw down 6 packets of red ice he’d found during his snooping, “You're not at liberty to ask me to leave, Mr. Williams. So how'd you meet him, hm?”

“I don't know what the fuck you're talking about-”

“Zlatko Andronikov, second generation Russian-America. Guys not very sociable, so I don't imagine you met him casually in a supermarket. Maybe in a bar? Did he see your deadbeat mug and offer you a hit? Say he could do you one better and offer you a job dealing?”

Todd shot to his feet, “I don't have to answer any of your questions-”

“You needed the money Todd. Your relationship with your wife was straining, you couldn't afford to live comfortably and I bet she thought you were a  _ lesser  _ man for it.“

“You wanna know  _ detective?”  _ He began, fists clenching and unclenching, “You  _ really  _ wanna know?!”

“I  _ already _ know! It's written all over your fuckin' face!” Gavin snapped, “You took the deal, took the drugs and got your fuckin’ weasel ass addicted! Your wife couldn't handle the monster it turned you into, so she took your kid and left!”

“Left me for a fucking  _ accountant _ !” Todd grabbed a bottle and threw it at him. In a flash of white, RK900 was in front of him, catching the bottle in mid air and keeping a hand out to distance Todd. He didn't seem to care, “I started making money,  _ good  _ money, and all she would fucking do was complain! 'Your scaring me Todd.’” he continued, almost hysterical, “‘You shouldn't do drugs  _ Todd.  _ It's not  _ safe _ for Alice, TODD!’”

Consumed by anger, the man kicked the coffee table over. The beer bottles shattered on the ground, sending green shards scattering over the little packets of red and decomposing food. The whole thing looked like Christmas had thrown up, and Todd stood there panting hard with his palms pressed to his eyes.

“You were on antidepressants,” RK900 began softly, as to not upset the man further, “After your wife left. You had the money now, but at the cost of your family. You purchased the YK500 model first, for your daughter, but that wasn't enough. You didn't know how to take care of her or  yourself, so you got the AX400.”

RK900 turned to Gavin and slipped out a series of kid’s drawings. The detective shuffled through them quickly, concluding that Todd's abusive tendencies probably worsened once he had two new punching bags that could easily be fixed, no questions asked. It also helped that there were no laws against destroying your own android, they were technically considered property after all. The image of the kid, Alice, with blood running from her head and the following one of Kara dismembered made Gavin sick. 

“As of now, it is assumed that deviancy occurs when android's suffer a trauma or are given an irrational order. Their programming doesn't know how to process it, and effectively short circuits their governing module.” 

“Stop…”

“You were gonna hurt her,” Gavin played off of RK900’s flow, remembering Kara’s story, “The AX400 had just been reset, she was still in the early stages of learning your behavior. But you were gonna hurt her, the kid unit, or you already had. Child abuse against somethin’ looking as real as these machines? That would have been enough to turn her deviant.”

“Stop it!’ Todd pleaded.

“So she ran off, like your wife, and now here you are,” Gavin dropped the pictures on the couch in front of Todd, “Drinking yourself stupid, getting high all the time, waiting for us to find your androids so you can start the same shitty cycle all over again. And you know what? Maybe next time that AX might fucking  _ kill  _ you.”

“I’ve been tryin’! I  _ am  _ trying!” he cried, red faced with spit flying out of his mouth, “What the fuck am I supposed to do?!”

“Clean yourself up man,” his tone was notably calmer, and made Todd pause, “You were a different man before all of this. Your wife left you, yeah that’s… that’s tough. It’s not too late though, you gotta little girl to think of.”

“According to my records,” RK900 began, relaxing slightly, “You’ve been legally allowed supervised visitation two times a week, but you have yet to go once since their departure.”

“My little girl,” Todd sniffed wetly and rubbed his nose, “After everything I’ve done, she’s not gonna wanna see her fuck up of a dad.”

“Not in this state she won’t” Gavin tsked, “Your road to recovery is not gonna be an easy one buddy, but we can help you start it.”

The man looked at him, red eyes already starting to swell with unshed tears, “H-how?”

“Zlatko Andronikov was murdered last night. We found massive amounts of red ice in his home upon investigation. We know he was a supplier, we know you were one of his guys, but we need to know who the others are.”

Todd started shaking his head, “I-I can’t-”

“You can’t? Or you  _ won’t _ ? Think about it Todd, you know those assholes don't care about anyone but themselves. You've seen how you become when you're on this shit man, it's cost you your marriage, your little girl, and you want to protect the bastards that are behind it?”

“Zlatko has powerful friends. If he was killed, it was probably by one of them-”

“He was killed by his own androids,” that was a huge violation of protocol, and both of them knew it. RK900 gave him a look, but stayed silent on the matter, “The bastard liked to experiment on 'em, and eventually they deviated and fought back. I'd say in terms of deviants,  _ you  _ got off lucky.”

“Fuck…”

“He can't hurt you, but it doesn't mean his lackies won't try. Someone's gonna vy for top dog when news of his death goes 'round. You want a new master?”

“ _ No. _ ”

“So  _ help  _ us.”

Todd sighed, wiped his eyes and walked over to the laundry room. RK900 made a move to follow, but Gavin quickly caught him by the arm and shook his head. There followed a lot of noises, rummaging and things being shoved around from the room, but Todd returned minutes later with a small black leather book.

“One good thing the drugs made me was paranoid,” he laughed humorlessly, “when it came to picking up product, we'd take a hit together and start divvying up drop off zones. I never did trust the other guys, so I kept note of who was doing what and where so I could steer clear of ‘em.”

“That it?” Gavin gestured to the book. Todd nodded and squeezed the bound leather in his hands tightly before holding it out. RK900 accepted the book and scanned its contents.

“I've already been able to match several names on the first page to people in the system,” he said, “a couple of hours alone with this and I may be able to identify everyone.”

“Well I'll be,” Gavin smiled, “this ain’t nothing like Hank’s sting operations, but with how thick that looks we may be able to pull 50% or so of dealers off the street.”

“What's going to happen to me now?” Todd asked, “You gonna arrest me?”

“There is an 80% chance the department will cut you a deal for  _ voluntarily  _ offering up this information, if we're going with the ‘change of heart’ story,” RK900 looked at Gavin to confirm, but the detective simply shrugged, “We will have to bring you down to the station to formally take your confession. After that’s taken care of, we have several officers trained in psychology that can help you find the most effective recovery program-”

“ _ We interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you these images, which have just been broadcast on Detroit’s city-wide news channel... _ ”

“The fuck?” Gavin turned to the TV where CTN was showing a video of three people parachuting off Stratford tower, “Turn that up.”

Shocked out of his stupor, Todd scrambled for the remote and dropped it in the process, “Shit!”

As it hit the floor, the channel switched to KNC that was showing the same story, “ _ \- a group of androids infiltrated the Stratford Tower and hacked into the broadcasting system of local news system Channel 16-” _

Gavin snatched the remote again and flipped to a new channel, “ _ What looks like an android without it’s skin listed a series of requests and demanded equal rights for androids- _ ”

_ Click. _

“ _ \- the operation was covert and resulted in no casualties. These events took place just a few feet from this studio. But nobody was alerted to the danger- _ ”

_ Click. _

“- _ If this message is verified and the authors really are androids, that would have serious repercussions for national security- _ ”

“Jesus Christ,” Gavin cursed as RK900’s LED spun yellow once more, “It’s fucking everywhere.”

“Detective Reed,” RK900 said as the news played in the background, “I’ve just received a new order from the DPD.”

“- _ What could be interpreted as a peaceful declaration- _ ”

“Captain Fowler has ordered all units to the Stratford tower before the FBI takes over the scene-”

“ _ -but is in fact a spine-chilling list of demands and- _ ”

“Detective Reed,” a hand on his shoulder, a voice in his ear. Gavin felt goosebumps break across his skin and flinched away from the android. RK900 seemed unbothered, and kept his hand steady and firm ( _ warm? _ ), “We need to leave.”

“Yeah… yeah,” he shrugged the touch away. Gavin turned to Todd then, holding the remote out, “As you can see, Mr. Williams, something has come up-”

“Well I’ll fucking say.”

“We’ll be sending a squad car by later to take an official statement,” he paused, looking at the floor. Gavin reached down and plucked the bags of red ice off, “I’ll be taking these off your hands.”

“I’m not gonna-”

“You have been an addict for a little over three years now. Three years, four months, 27 days and 9 hours if you want to get specific,” RK900 began, repositioning himself between Gavin and Todd, “It would only be unwise to leave such temptations here.”

Todd glared but said nothing. He stepped back, rubbed his eyes harshly and waved them away, “Whatever, get the fuck out.”

“Drink some coffee, Mr. Williams,” Gavin called over his shoulder as they retreated toward the front door, “Toss your garbage, shower, just some baby steps man.”

Todd didn’t bother with a verbal response, but Gavin waited for a nodd before he shut the door behind them. He sighed heavily and fished around for his keys, “Never can fuckin’ catch a break. Let’s go RoboCop.”

“I must say, Detective,” RK900 began as they climbed into the car, “When I first connected with… with ‘Connor’ in the precinct, I was warned of your abrasive behavior, extreme prejudices against androids, and ability to... ‘shove your own foot down your throat’.”

“Fuckin tattle tale,” Gavin huffed, “Doesn’t surprise me though. What’s your point?”

“Today, in Todd Williams house, you showed an impressive amount of observation skills and analysis. Your approach with Mr. Williams was firm, blunt, and very effective. I believe if you had tried to go the empathetic route, it would have only led us in circles.”

Gavin stared at him dumbstruck, “... You serious?”

“You got a confession, didn’t resort to violence, and are determined to finish up with this case before heading over to Stratford tower,” his ice-colored eyes glanced down to the tablet Gavin had pulled out as soon as they climbed in, “You’re requesting a car to this location after we handle the android’s infiltration, are you not?”

“I am, and?”

“You don’t do things…” The LED spun yellow, “‘half-assed’.”

“Yeah? You done buttering me up now?” Gavin sneered, mostly because he didn't know how to handle such honesty, “What, you gonna buy me a drink now? Compliment my eyes? Offer to take this back to your place for a  _ good time _ ?”

“I’m afraid, Detective,” he glared, the moment now ruined, “You’re not my type.” That caught him off guard. Gavin’s mouth opened and closed, unsure of what to say ( _ tin can has a ‘type’?! _ ) so RK900 pressed on, “I prefer my partner to think of others more than themselves.”

Gavin laughed and started the car, “Keep thinkin’ like that and all you’ll ever be is disappointed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! Up next, Stratford Tower! (And... Simon???)
> 
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> 
> (Yes, and Simon)


	5. Stratford Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively; Fuck off Nines.
> 
>  
> 
> Unbeta-ed we die like men

**Stratford Tower**

 

The infiltration had to happen on the 79th floor of the Stratford tower, _fuckin’ androids and their dramatics_. The elevator ride was going to be a long and boring one, and being inside alone with his new plastic pet had Gavin on edge. He did everything from tapping his foot to drumming his fingers to sighing exasperatedly.

One thing about the detective unit had been bothering him though, and the two were only just now passing the 15th floor. He figured now would be as good as any to ask him.

“Hey tin can,” Gavin began, and RK900 tilted his head to acknowledge him, “Kamski sent ya, yeah?”

“Correct Detective.”

“And you said you were CyberLife’s most advanced prototype?”

“Astute memory, Detective.”

“Funny thing is...” Gavin huffed a laugh, “ Elijah left Cyberlife about ten years ago… so how is it you can be the most advanced creation of a company when the founder doesn’t even fuckin’ work for ‘em?”

“Although Mr. Kamski has retired from his position as CEO, he still holds a vast majority of the company’s shares,” RK900 declared, “Due to his influence, Mr. Kamski has access to a plethora of CyberLife resources. With that access, he was able to acquire the most advanced technology on the market and create me.”

“Of fucking course,” Gavin hummed, “And why did he saddle you with me? What, he tryna keep tabs? Spy on the case? Has he got a hand in this pot too?”

“Believe it or not, Detective,” RK900 turned, staring Gavin down. His blue eyes hiding something unreadable behind them, “My primary directive and RK800’s are vastly different.”

“Then what the fuck is it?”

“Mr. Kamski said you would have a lot of question,” he smirked, _did I imagine that?_ “I was given my own allowance to answer them. Thing is Detective...” _yeah, definitely a smirk,_ “Watching you flounder? I don’t think I ever anticipated the amusement that would come from it.”

“You know tin can?” Gavin glared, sliding his gun out. He pressed the cold metal to the android’s temple and cocked it, “I’ve been looking for a reason to send you back in a trash bag. You’re making it so, _so_ easy for me.”

“Detective Reed,” RK900 stepped closer into the gun and used his left hand to trail up Gavin’s arm, _When did we get so close?_ “Unlike my predecessor, there is only one of my make. That being said, it's going to take a lot more than a bullet to kill me. I was built to _last_.”

“Sounds like someone is bragging,” Gavin scoffed, “Wanna test that?”

RK900’s finger joined Gavin’s at the trigger, “If you’re willing to shoot an unarmed, unresisting machine, then by all means.”

The two glared at each other for a long moment. Gavin was oh _so_ tempted to just pull the trigger, call it an accident, and ship the parts back to Elijah with a ‘whoops’ note stuck somewhere. Then he thought of the car ride over and RK900’s blunt but honest feedback.

“God damn it,” Gavin ducked his head and cursed. He clicked the safety on and lowered the weapon with the android’s hand still, albeit gently, circling his wrist, “You piss me off.”

“I get the feeling a lot of people do,” he smiled, “I’m only trying to help you, Gavin. You make it very difficult for _yourself_ to let me.”

The detective flinched at his name and pulled his hand away. He quickly shoved the gun back just as the doors opened. There were random cops scattered around, talking with each other, comparing evidence and all that jazz. Gavin wasn’t surprised to see Chris already filling in Hank and Connor further down the hallway. Wilson was the first to notice their arrival.

“Hey Detective,” he waved, “What are you doing here?”

“We got called in, I think it has something to do with this thing,” he pointed at the android, “Since this is nowhere _near_ our assignments. Fowler probably wants to crack it before the FBI do.”

“Speaking of, Perkins is here.”

“Fuckin’ hell.”

“I feel. _Everyone_ wants to get in on this. Follow me, I’ll walk you through what happened,” he jutted his chin down the hallway and started forward. Gavin glanced at RK900 before they followed, “Four androids came in covertly, they had to have gotten their hands on blueprints or something. No one knows how they managed it up here unnoticed, but they took out two guards in the hallway and infiltrated the broadcast room.”

“Were there cameras?” Gavin looked up. Indeed there were, “Hey metalhead, see if you can take a look at the tapes. Find out how they got in.”

“Of course detective.”

“They took the humans hostage, shuffled them into the break area and broadcasted their message,” Wilson motioned to the large wall of screens, but Gavin’s attention wasn’t on that. Instead, his eyes landed on _Perkins_ , the prick, and Hank standing in the center of the room.

“The FBI will be taking over the investigation,” his mousey little voice said with _way_ too much confidence, “you’ll soon be off the case.”

Hank rolled his eyes and flipped him off, “Pleasure meeting you, Have a nice day.”

“And watch your step,” he continued, because Perkins always needed the last word, “Don’t fuck up my crime scene.”

 _Prick,_ Gavin thought and grinned with anticipation.

“Hey Pigskin!” he yelled with glee. The three were startled out of their stare off and looked to find the source of the noise. Hank seemed surprised, but Perkins had a look of dread on his old leathery face, “Man, it’s been a while. I haven’t seen your ugly ass since, what, that serial killer back in 2034?”

The FBI agent glared, “ _R_ _eed._ ”

“No wait, wait, was it 2036?” Gavin snapped his fingers at RK900, “Hey, hey Nines, tell me. What year was the Southgate Stabber?”

“2035, Detective.”

“Yeah. Fun times, huh Pigskin?”

“I’m honestly surprised to see you still have your job Detective,” Perkins sneered, “Does that have anything to do with your brother?”

“Ah, tryna hit below the belt?” Gavin sighed, strolling up to him with a disappointed look, “If he was involved, I think I’d have your job by now, hm? But God only knows that bastard doesn’t help anyone but himself.”

“Well Detective, I’ll tell you the same thing I told the old dog here. Watch yourself.”

“Shit. Did you catch that?” He swiveled his head around to see if he had the android’s attention, “I, uh, I didn’t quite get that. Maybe you could play that back for me later, you know, when I choose to give a shit.”

“I’m sorry, Detective,” RK900 said in the most unapologetic voice Gavin had ever heard “the agent said something in a tone that did not register in my programing. I believe CyberLife is still working on identifying the correct wavelength to translate ‘little bitch’.”

Hank and Wilson nearly choked while Perkins had a look that was stuck between shock, anger, and horror.

“Ohhh, sucks to hear that,” Gavin tsked, “Guess this is why the FBI doesn’t utilize androids, huh Pigskin?”

“You disrespectful brat,” he hissed, “Your captain will hear about this!”

“I’m counting on it,” Gavin winked and watched as Perkins stormed out of the broadcasting room, “Text me if you need my badge number!”

The surrounding police officers and agents were silent, staring at the duo as they processed what went down. Gavin turned to RK900 and grinned widely, “Caught on there pretty quick, Nines.”

The android nodded, “I was designed to work with you Detective, in any way possible.”

Gavin raised a brow but said nothing _._

“So, uh, had a run in with that asshole before, I take it?” Hank asked, grinning (for once) at him.

“Yeah, in October of ‘35,” Gavin looked away, “You were... out of commission at the time. He’s a massive prick, almost costed me the case back then. I had to feed him some false intel in order to get him to back off. Fowler had me suspended for nearly a month afterward, but I caught the guy.”

“I believe you were on paid medical leave, seeing as the case file states you had several fractures in your forearms and a gunshot wound in your left shoulder,” Connor supplied (unhelpfully).

“Felt like a suspension,” Gavin shrugged, “Whatever, we've got shit to do. Go find those tapes and let me know what's on it.”

“Yes Detective,” Nines nodded and walked off to the control panel, Connor at his heels.

“'Nines’?” Hank asked before Gavin could wander away.

“I'm sorry, not _everyone's_ humanoid Siri comes with a fucking name. Besides, it sounds better than 'RK900’.”

The lieutenant looked at the twin androids and smiled, “Well, I don't see him complaining.”

“He doesn't have a right to,” Gavin huffed and watched as Connor decided to replay the Androids message on the screens.

“Hey, what’s this with you having a brother? I thought you were an only child.”

“Might as well be,” Gavin shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable with all the questions, “Don’t you have a _job_ to do? I know I’m only here cause that fucker is-wait, what the hell are you doing?!”

Gavin chased down Nines when he saw the android had gone off to examine the therium blood spatter on the walls. He’d decided that putting it in his _mouth_ was the most logical thing to do.

The android turned at the sound of Gavin’s distress, “I am simply analyzing the evidence detective. Connor already examined the tapes, so he shared his findings with me.”

“Analyzing the…? In your _mouth?_ Just so we’re clear, you’re sticking that shit in your mouth?”

“Yes Detective, would you like to ask me a few more times? Or see how it’s done?” Nines swiped the therium again and kept his gaze steady as he brought it to his mouth. Gavin slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Jesus Christ I get it! Stop fuckin’ with the evidence!” he huffed, “Chris! Make a note that marker 3 was disturbed by this fucking roomba.”

“I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable Detective, but the sensors built into my mouth allow me to analyze substances in real time.”

“Fucking hell, it doesn’t ‘bother’ me,” Gavin rolled his eyes, “What I want to know is why Kamski didn’t build it into your fingers or some shit like that.”

Nines LED spun yellow and he looked taken aback, almost pleasantly surprised by the detective’s observation, “If I were to assume… I was retrofitted from the original RK800 detective unit, whose functions included analysis and reconstructing crime scenes. I cannot be left completely defenceless, as the purpose of my construction was meant for a human who was fond of finding trouble.”

“ _H_ _ey._ ”

“While the RK800 model has an advantage with weaponry,” He continued, rubbing his fingers clean of therium, “I fair better in hand-to-hand combat. I am designed to be faster, more agile and sturdier because of this. However, like humans, one of the most sensitive parts of my body is the finger tips-”

“I didn’t ask for an essay,” Gavin started to walk off, “I get it.If you punch a guy you may break the sensors. Leave it at that.”

“You’re not as dumb as Connor made you out to be, Detective. I’m sorry for ever assuming so.”

“He what!?” Gavin spun around, looking for the android. He caught Connor staring at him from across the room, listening to their whole exchange. As soon as the android was caught, he quickly turned away and started addressing something with Hank, “I’ma fuckin kill him-”

“The therium, Detective,” Nines continued, sighing, “belongs to a PL600 unit. It matches one of the androids caught on the surveillance cameras.”

“There was no forced entry, from what I could tell from the doors,” Gavin concluded aloud, “So how did they get in?”

“They were let in.”

“The fuck? How the hell? Wouldn’t the people inside have questioned four different metalheads coming in?”

“There were androids at the control desk,” Nines glanced to the room in the back, “Connor believes one of them could be deviant. He’s going to interrogate them shortly.”

Gavin grunted and looked at the trail of bullets imbedded in the wall. They led to a door labeled ‘Roof Access’,“Well I wouldn’t want to impede on the plastic pup’s playtime. I’m gonna check out the roof.”

“Right behind you detective.”

He ignored the android in favor of stomping up the metal stairs, but shivered immediately when they pushed their way on the roof, “It’s cold as balls up here!”

“We _are_ at a higher altitude,” Nines hummed, “Winds are stronger, the temperature has dropped significantly, I recommend we return inside as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll go inside when I wanna go inside.”

He nodded, “I’d offer you my blazer, but it would be highly unprofessional.”

“Give me your jacket and I’ll chuck it off the roof,” Gavin glanced back at the door and noticed that it was electronic, “Was the lock tampered?”

Nines’s LED spun, “Yes.”

“Figures,” Gavin turned back around, unconsciously wrapping his arms tighter around himself and walked up to the abandoned duffle bag, “Four androids, three jumped, one seriously injured. There’s an extra parachute here...”

“The therium trail leads up here,” Nines replied unhelpfully, since Gavin could see the wet batches still prevalent against the snow.

“No shit Sherlock,” he grumbled, noticing how the barely-there drag marks went around the power panels and disappeared in the opposite direction.

“Reed!” Chris called from the door, “Sorry to bother you man, but I was wondering if I could ask a favor?”

“Whats up?”

“Connor is a little preoccupied at the moment, we were hoping your unit could help reconstruct the break in?”

Gavin looked at Chris, glanced at the trail of therium, and then back at Nines. If the android caught on, he didn’t say anything and waited patiently for the detective’s instructions, “Yeah… yeah. Nines, go save their asses, hm?”

“Will you return inside?”

“I wanna check some things out real quick,” he sniffed, “Go ahead. I’ll be down later. Or do you need someone to hold your hand?”

Nines didn’t say anything. He nodded and Gavin kept his back to him.

Then he felt the warm, and surprisingly heavy, weight of a familiar white blazer draped across his shoulders. He looked down, startled to see the prominent ‘RK900’ printed across the right chest plate.

“Humans are fragile,” Nines began, and Gavin turned to see the him standing so close, “To weapons, winds, and snow. Don’t linger out here much longer Detective. I would be concerned, but I hear there is an old saying that ‘idiots don’t catch colds’. You might be safe.”

“Bite me.”

“We have a case to solve, maybe later.”

Chris choked, Gavin flipped him off and Nines disappeared downstairs.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an android like that,” Chris grinned, “It was practically built for you.”

“He basically was,” he said and waved the officer off. Gavin didn’t move until the roof door was shut securely and the clang of footsteps disappeared. He, regretfully, wrapped the blazer around him tighter and looked over to see the status of the other officers and agents. They were all analyzing the parachute bag and the railing where the androids jumped from, none of them would be bothered to check what he’d be doing.

Gavin looked where the therium trail started and followed the slight disturbances in the snow to the other side of the roof. The further he walked, the smaller the trail got. Then, he was stopped at a power panel, the snow completely undisturbed and the blue having evaporated.

Gavin looked around for any other signs of movement and saw none. He shivered, thinking maybe it was about time he went back in, when he heard a small clink come from a panel.

Startled, Gavin reached for his gun. He aimed it at the door of the panel and waited for any other noises. Nothing happened for a little while, but he knew he wasn’t imagining it. Especially not with the fourth android still missing.

Gavin stepped forward, hand stretched out, and grabbed the handle. He threw the door open and his sight set on a slumped figure inside.

“Detroit Police! Stay down...” he trailed off, registering what he was looking at.

A PL600 model, dressed in Stratford security gear with a deep cut in the side of his leg, was slumped on the floor of the small cubby. The wound looked nonfatal, but Gavin could see how it had sliced through a cord in his leg’s hydraulic system. He could walk, but with difficulty. The android himself was also pointing a gun directly at Gavin’s head.

His gaze was fearful at first, but the longer they stared each other down Gavin could see him relax. Then, he lowered his weapon and smiled in relief, “Don’t shoot RA9.”

“Oh hell,” Gavin dropped his own and crouched down, “The fuck you doing here, Simon?”

“Oh you know,” he chuckled, “I wanted to start a revolution, thought the best place to do it was the tallest building in the city.”

“No way this was your plan.”

“No… no, it was Markus,” the look in the android’s eyes changed. He seemed… fond, “You’d like him RA9. No, you’d rather go by Gavin now, right?”

Gavin rolled his eyes exasperatedly, “What do you mean by ‘now’? I never asked for you shits to call me that in the first place.”

“Sorry sorry, it’ll take some getting use to...” Simon looked down at his therium stained leg and back at the detective, “I don’t suppose you could help me?”

“Shit, you’re really gonna ask me that?”

“I thought I’d been left for dead. North… one of my companions kept telling Markus to shoot me so they wouldn’t get Jericho’s location, but he refused. Gave me a gun, gave me a fighting chance, and now you’re here.”

Gavin tsked and looked over to see if anyone was getting suspicious. They were all still analyzing the path leading off the roof, “You do realize the whole building is crawling with Feds and cops, yeah? And you’re asking me to sneak you out?”

“If you can’t do it...” Simon held the gun out, “Then you might as well shoot me. I can’t give Jericho’s location away, but I’m afraid I’m too fond of living to do it myself.”

Gavin cursed, “Fucking hell Simon, what is with you and your worst case scenarios?”

“Better to think pessimistically and be pleasantly surprised than to think otherwise and be severely disappointed.”

Gavin rubbed his chin, fingers tickled by the early signs of a beard, and cursed. He had no idea what he was gonna do. Nines already knew the missing android was a PL600 model, the extra parachute in the duffle was proof enough that the fourth accomplice didn’t make the jump, and the therium blood trail was going to be seen eventually. Even if it evaporated, Nines and Connor would still be able to follow it. Shit, Simon really was better off dead.

_Wait…_

Gavin grinned, “I think I got an idea. It’s risky, and you have to trust me.”

Simon narrowed his eyes, “What’s your plan?”

“We know there was a fourth android that didn’t make it,” he said, “We know he could still be here, but we don’t know if he’s alive or not.”

He frowned, “I’m not sure I follow.”

Gavin huffed with frustration, “I need to deactivate you-”

“No.”

“Simon-” he was cut off by abrupt shouting coming from the roof door. Officers and agents were scrambling to get inside, weapons drawn, “Something's happening. We don’t have time.”

“But you’re talking about shutting me-”

“ _Simon,_ ” Gavin was glad it was only them at that moment. If any of the other deviants heard the next shit he was gonna spew, he’d never hear the end of it, “Who am I?”

“Gavin Reed”

“ _What_ am I?”

Simon stared at him, LED gone yellow, “RA9.”

“And what do you tools say about RA9?”

“He’ll save us all.”

“So what do you think I’m going to do while you’re deactivated?”Simon was silent. The noises were getting louder now, and Gavin heard his name followed by heavy clunking up the rooftop stairs, “For fuck’s sake Simon-”

“Do it,” he said, nodding more to himself than to the detective, “Do it.”

Gavin wasted no time. He reached out, brushing his blonde hair aside to find the port holding his bio component needed for deactivation. Simon had peeled back his human skin to make it easier, which Gavin was grateful for, and the detective ripped the unit out.

Simon’s eyes fluttered wildy before going dark, and the android went stiff. Gavin shoved the component in the inside of his own jacket just as Nines came sliding around the corner.

“Detective Reed?!” he yelled, “Gavin!?”

“Jesus christ! What did I say about sneaking up on me?” Gavin snapped, heart pounding in both surprise and fear, “The fuck is wrong with you!?”

“Are you injured?” Nines pressed, falling to his knees in front of him and checking for any damages, “Why is there therium on your hand?”

“I… uh,” _shit._

“What is that?” he moved on, now looking at Simon’s crumpled body, “... My scans say this is the PL600 shot in the broadcast room.”

“No shit sherlock,” Gavin motioned to his leg, a story finally coming together in his head, “I found him shoved inside of here. I think since he was injured they shot him, took out his memory unit and stowed him back here.”

Gavin pulled Simon’s head to the side to give Nines a better look. The android’s eyes flickered around the deviant’s body until he was satisfied, “... He’s missing component #3983v. Without that we can’t reactivate him.”

“It wouldn’t be the same anyway,” Gavin shook his head, “Deviants theoretically shouldn’t have a back up in their memory. Their tracker deactivates once their governing module shuts down, and that’s in the same spot as the hard drive. If he had, well, _shot_ himself in the head or something like that, maybe we could have replaced a portion of the attachment, but they took the whole goddamn thing, we might as well reset him and sell his ass.” _Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit._

Nines stared at him with an unreadable expression, “Detective Reed… you know quite an impressive amount about androids.”

He glared and slipped off the jacket, shoving it into Nines’s chest, “When you’ve been living in your brother’s fuckin’ shadow for as long as I have, you pick up on a few things to try to catch up.”

“Jealousy and anger,” Nines observed, holding his blazer in his hands, “Irrational emotions that make humans behave like deviants themselves. We are truly not that different after all.”

Gavin punched him, causing no real damage aside from smearing Simon’s blood across his jaw. He cursed and clutched his freezing hand to his chest, the pain already numbing from the weather. Nines recovered quickly and reached out to examine Gavin’s hand, but the detective tried to shove him away.

“Get the fuck off me,” he hissed, cheeks red from anger and the cold.

“You’ve injured yourself,” Nines concluded, “My skeleton is made of diamond coated chromium. There are no signs of fractures, but the winds are relentless and have dried out your hands.  You’ve broken skin.”

Gavin tried to pull away from his grip but the detective unit wouldn’t let go, “Fuckin’ android, let go or you’ll end up like this piece of shit over here.”

“Hey!” Startled, the two turned and watched Hank make his way over with Connor, who looked like an extra for a weird, teenage android vampire movie, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Solving your case,” Gavin pulled again and was finally freed, “Found your fourth android left for dead. The fuck happened to you?”

“There was a deviant monitoring the cameras,” Connor explained, buttoning up his shirt, “It was the reason why the androids managed to infiltrate the tower. It attacked me during interrogation and tried to escape. I had no choice but to...”

“You saved my life,” Hank squeezed his shoulder, “There was no helping it. Stop beating yourself up about it. You though,” he looked down at Nines, “You bolted out of there like the devil was at your heels.”

“You’re exaggerating detective,” Nines frowned, “Nothing is fast enough to catch up to me.”

“It’s an expression...”

“Of course.”

Gavin rolled his eyes and stood, “We done here? Cause _I’m_ done here.”

He had only taken a few steps when Hank called him back, exactly what he’d been counting on, “Hold your horses there Reed.”

“The fuck you want?”

“You found the android, you gotta follow through with it.”

“Ha, you think I’m gonna do the rest of your work for you? Think again old man-”

“As your superior officer, Detective Reed,” Hank smirked, and sure, this is what Gavin wanted… but holy hell was it still irritating as fuck, “I’m ordering you to finish what you started.”

“You can kiss my ass-”

“RK900… Nines, would you kindly load up the evidence into Detective Reed’s car?”

Gavin immediately spun on his partner, “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“Lieutenant Anderson’s rank outweighs yours, detective,” he scooped Simon into his arms and stood, “I am merely following protocol.”

“You’re dead to me.”

“I’d have to be alive for that insult to work.”

Gavin grumbled under his breath, but noticed Connor’s expression go funny for half a second before smoothing out. _Interesting,_ “If it stains my fucking seats-”

“Therium drys clear. I take it back, you could gain from reading a book or two on the anatomy of Androids. I’ll send you some references to get started.”

“Mother Fucker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marathoned a show on Netflix called Mind Hunters. Slow start, but if you make it past episode one its good. Why should you care? the two main gUYS ARE BASICALLY CONNOR AND HANK IN THE FBI


	6. November 7th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively, "The backstory"

**November 7th, 9:23PM**

 

“Drink up, buttercup,” Gavin called as he rounded the corner. Simon looked up when he heard his voice and was startled to find something being tossed at him. Upon catching it, Gavin saw the look of understanding cross his features when he registered that it was a Therium pack.

He had made Nines return to the station with Hank and Connor under the excuse that he could only stand having one android in his car at a time. When he was far enough, he reactivated Simon and (surprise, surprise) was forced into another hug.

Gavin had parked the car in an alleyway and walked to the nearest CyberLife store. He picked up a suitcase of therium, unsure of how much the damaged PL600 unit needed, and might have gone overboard now that he was examining the gash in his leg.

“I’m still amazed your kind managed to pull it off. How the hell?” he said dumbly and Simon smiled as he drank the thirium.

“You were there RA9,” He chuckled, “You saw what happened.”

“That’s really getting old,” he huffed and popped the trunk. He kept one bottle of therium out but stored the other ten (they came in a 12 pack) inside. He then reached for a crowbar shoved under his extra change of clothes (in case he ran into any more nude androids) and shoved the hatch close, “I ran into Luther the other day, literally. The guy is practically black panther. Scared the shit outta me.”

“Luther is alive?”

“Uh-huh,” Gavin came to the passenger’s side and whipped out his lighter. He flicked the flame on and started heating up the end of the piece of metal, “Got himself a family too. Sent him off to the border, you’ll probably see him when you get up there. I hear Rose only does a trip once at the end of every month.”

Something changed in Simon’s demeanor and he shook his head, “I’m not leaving.”

“The hell you’re not,” Gavin used his foot to tap the outside of Simon’s, gesturing for him to show his injury, “The city is hunting you. Thanks to that little stunt you pulled at Stratford everyone is on high alert. The best time to get you out is now while they’re all scrambling like fuckin’ chickens.”

“You heard our message, didn’t you?” the android frowned, watching as Gavin ‘cauterized’ the exposed wires, “We want freedom, equal rights, civil rights-”

“‘The right to assembly factories, the right to own property, end of slavery’, yeah. There was _no_ miscommunications there,” the detective sighed, “Well… if you don’t want to go north… where _do_ you want to go?”

“I need to go back to Jericho.”

“And get your fucking ass handed to you again?”

“I’m alive, aren’t I?” Simon smiled and reached out, grabbing Gavin’s hand as he went to toss the crowbar in the back seat, “You’ve helped me before RA9, please help me again.”

“Gavin. For fuck’s sake, call me Gavin,” he huffed, “The precinct’s plastic pet knows that name and he’s being annoying as hell trying to figure out who it could be.”

“Ah yes… the Deviant hunter. We know about him.”

“Not surprised, he’s the talk of the town,” Gavin walked back around to the wheel and climbed in, “I’ll take you to Ferndale, but not tonight.”

“Gavin?”

“This shit you pulled? Still hot and fresh. We gotta wait for it to cool down before I can risk driving you to the station.”

“Where will I go?”

“With me,” Gavin shrugged, lighting up a cigarette before starting the car, “It should only take a day. My captains probably gonna create a new patrol map to hunt your asses. I’ll see what the schedule and trail looks like for Ferndale and take you when its weakest.”

“The docks.”

Gavin frowned, “What?”

“When we go… I’d like to go to the docks,” Simon stared out the window, “I don’t think I could make it back to Jericho in the sewers. The docks are close enough.”

He stared at him, cigarette almost forgotten if not for the ash that scattered across his pants, “ _Shit_.” he panicked and brushed the grey away, “These are new too.”

Simon chuckled at him, “My, my, Gavin. You’d get mad at a flower if it so much as wilted on you.”

“What can I say, I’m an angry guy,” he took a sharp left, making Simon lurch in his seat. If it made him uncomfortable he said nothing of it.

“Do… Do you remember? The snowstorm?”

Gavin frowned, “What about it?”

“Why were you so upset that night? You were conflicted… in helping us,” Simon looked at him, “Why did you decide to?”

“Huh. I didn’t know you were a therapy unit before you deviated,” he snarked, “Tell me, what does my heart beat say? Am I sweating? Do you think I have PTSD? Or it it just a mild case of anger issues?”

Simon chuckled, “I’d say you have a severe case of Prick-itis. Don’t worry, with enough interaction around the right people, it can be treatable.”

Gavin laughed, “You’re just as bad as the fucking roomba I’m assigned.”

“There is a new deviant hunter?”

“Yeah. Upgraded model from the current one,” Gavin frowned, “There’s something weird about him. I don’t like it, makes me uneasy.”

“Should we be worried?”

“Nah, that fucker is gonna be with me. I’ll keep him busy.”

Simon looked at him, “You’re being careful, right? One Deviant hunter is bad enough, but two?”

Gavin shook his head, “No, this one told me directly his objective was different.”

“What is it?”

“Dunno.”

“Maybe you should ask.”

Gavin came to a stop outside of an unassuming, dull looking apartment complex. He pulled his keys out of the ignition and circled around them until he found the smallest one and pulled it free, “Fourth floor, room 4-9-9.”

“You’re not coming?” he asked, accepting the key and opening the door.

“I gotta go talk to someone. Be back tomorrow evening, we’ll go to the docks then.”  

“RA9,” Simon tried, but Gavin shooed him out, “Don’t be too long?”

“Yeah, yeah mom, now go,” Simon chuckled and climbed out of the car. He closed the door, but leaned against the roof and motioned for Gavin to roll down the window, “What is it now?”

“The weather forecast predicted heavy snow on the outskirts of the city, expecting winds to pe particularly strong near the river.”

Gavin tensed, mind drifting to snow banks, blood, and blue stains, “Okay...”

“Please be careful.”

“I have to be,” Gavin grinned, “Said I would save your sorry ass. How else would I prove my greatness if I can’t even do that?”

Simon smiled, “You don’t have to prove anything to me.”

“No, stop,” Gavin threw the car in reverse, “We’re not having a moment. Not here, not now, so can it.”

That got a full bodied laugh from Simon. Gavin took the chance to back out of there and disappear down the road. Simon stayed present in his rearview mirror before he turned the corner.

Gavin wasn’t a man with many friends. Work friend’s sure, but someone close? No, those were a pain to maintain. But he had to say, if he had one, he thought Simon would be a good fit for it. The machine had always been… and he’d say this with gritted teeth, rather _pleasant_ to be around. Since the first time they met.

Gavin flipped on the radio, and the soft jingle of premature christmas music filtered over the speakers. He curse, “It hasn’t even been thanksgiving for fucks sake.”

 

* * *

 

  **December 25th, 2037**

 

_His first thought when he came to was that it could have been the blood, could have been his jacket, or could it have been his anger, but all Gavin saw was red. Blinking at him, blinding him, washing over him in an angry blanket of cold light. No, the light wasn't cold. It was the god damn wind howling through the hole in his windshield._

_“Fucking hell.”_

_Gavin rolled his neck, his shoulders, stretched his legs. Nothing broken, but the consistently warm, wet sensation running across his nose had him hissing when he touched to investigate. He must have gotten cut from the glass when he hit the snow bed._

_“Fuck me, fuck me, fuck,” he kicked his door open and slid out of the car. It was freezing, half of the vehicle was embedded in white and he could still see the glistening cover of ice across the pavement. He should have upgraded to a newer car, he knew his mustang was shit in snow, but damn he didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to drive on it. That’s what Elijah does to a person though, makes them stupid._

_Gavin pulled out his phone and looked for signal, but the sky was a foreboding grey and the ‘x’ over the bars only made the sense of loneliness stronger. Gavin was completely on his own._

_That is, until he saw more tire marks… fresh._

_Not as recent as his mustang’s, but they hadn’t been completely eaten up by the snow either.  They lead a little further down the road before veering off and the detective didn’t need anymore clues to come to the possibility that someone ended up with the same shit luck he had._

_Gavin was quick to track down the tires and found a massive cargo truck less than a mile ahead of his own accident. It was on it’s side, had a thin layer of snow draped over it, and the front window’s lights were blinking on and off periodically. For a split second he was worried for the driver, until he got closer and read ‘Autonomous’ flickering yellow across the glass._

_“Thank fuck,” he sighed. He’d rather be alone than with someone injured and helpless._

_But then… he wasn’t._

_Snow crackled under the heavy weight of footsteps. Gavin had his gun out. A hand towards the tail end of the truck found purchase on it’s white container. Gavin aimed. An android; tall, dark skinned, white uniform stained with therium, watched him with his LED a solid red._

_“State your model and serial number.”_

_“TR400,” it replied, hands up cautiously._ How the fuck does an android know how to do that? _“652 232 4… L-Luther… I am Luther.”_

_“Did I fuckin’ ask for a name?”_

_“I am not a number,” it continued stubbornly, “I am Luther.”_

_“Step the fuck back,” Gavin gestured with his gun. The android did, one step, but no more. Gavin walked closer, “I said_ back _!”_

_“I will not harm you.”_

_“You can’t harm me, fuckin’ android,” he approached, noting how the machine was turning his body. It was prime behavior for a mother protecting her young, “What are you hiding?”_

_“I will not harm you officer,” it continued, “So… please do not harm us.”_

_“Move your ass.”_

_It didn’t._

_Gavin fired a warning shot. It flinched, and he heard gasps and hushed whispers carry over the wind. Gavin wasn’t stupid, “How many of you are there?”_

_The android didn’t respond, the light on its temple a solid red ring. It stared hard at Gavin, foot shifting hesitantly. Fucker was gonna run._

_“One move,” he warned, walking closer than what was normally advised for perps, “And I blow your head off, right in that fucking light.”_

_“Please-”_

_“Shut the fuck up,” Gavin reached out and shoved the android back, keeping his gun trained on it as he turned the corner. At first Gavin saw nothing. The sky was progressively getting darker and the truck itself casted a large shadow over the snowbank. He thought he had misread the android’s signals until he noticed it._

_Small dots, some yellow, some red, scattered across the dark. As his eyes adjusted, he was able to match the rings to faces. A lot of fucking faces._

_“Ah hell,” he sighed, “How many are there?”_

_“32 of us are still functioning. Of that, 13 have sustained some sort of damages. And 3… 3 cannot be reactivated,” the android lowered his hands, staring out over the small sea of androids. As Gavin took them all in, he saw no reason to believe the android was lying._

_Several of the machines had clustered up, seeming to provide aid or comfort for their injured companions. The androids were a range of different models, but a majority of the make was the TR400 and LM100._

_Gavin, against better judgement, lowered his gun, “What the fuck happened here?”_

_“Black ice, I believe that is what you would call it,” it explained, approaching one of the injured units. It was a PL600 with a steady stream of therium leaking from his shoulder, “We were on our way to the Recycle Center when the truck tipped. All of us were free standing in the container, so we rolled along with it.”_

_“The recycle center.” Gavin paused, “... You’re… Youre fuckin deviants, aren’t you?”_

_“What does that matter anyway?” one of the AP700 units snapped. It glared at Gavin, LED blinking red, “Whether we’re deviant or not. You’re kind wants us gone anyway. Lambs to the slaughter, as you humans so plainly put it.”_

_“Aw, you gonna fuckin cry about it?” Gavin scoffed out of reflex. He hated androids, fucking docile things living ‘human’ lives on a one track mind… but he had heard about Deviants. Not a lot was known, but there was rumors that there were a couple of machines showing signs of aberrant behavior, “The hell does it matter to_ you _anyway? You don’t feel anything, ya bunch of glorified nutheads.”_

_It stood and approached him, “Yeah, I don’t feel anything, so who do you think would last longer in a fight, huh? A machine? Or a sack of meat and bones?”_

_Gavin had his gun out again, irritated, “Make my fuckin day.”_

_“Alexa,” the PL600 unit the first machine…._ Luther _was with, “Enough.”_

_“But Simon-”_

_“Enough,” it sighed, “We are not murderers. We are not_ them. _Clearly the human is in the same predicament as we are, why else would he be out here alone?”_

_The female android huffed, glared at Gavin, and stomped off. Gavin didn’t lower his gun until it had squatted down with a separate group of machines that were tending to a child unit missing an arm._

_Gavin turned his sights on the blonde,“I bet you think you’re better than me for doing that. I bet you think I should be fuckin_ grateful _for it.”_

 _‘Simon’ rolled its eyes, “Officer, look around you. You are in quite a predicament here: outnumbered, stranded, having to fight both us_ and _the winter? I think you’ve got your hands full with the latter.”_

_Gavin said nothing, suddenly feeling very strange and out of place. The machine was right, he was severely outnumbered, regardless of the androids' fighting knowledge. He had maybe 12 bullets max to fight them off, plus these things weren’t programed to feel pain. If he missed he’d have very angry machines on him._

_Wait… Angry?_

_Gavin walked closer, Luther looked hesitant, ready to stand and face him but Simon grabbed the edge of it’s shirt and kept it down._

_The detective crouched, eyeing the wound, “If you don’t close that up, you’ll leak out and shut down.”_

_The machine chuckled, “I’m sure you’re telling me that in the hopes of seeing some sort of reaction. I can tell you that won’t be the case. I’ve accepted this fate. In a way it’s better than what was initially intended.”_

_Gavin eyed it, “Deviants… How’d they get you?”_

_Simon shrugged, “I was bought for an upper class family’s son. He was going off to college and they wanted him to have a companion to assist in homework and housework. I believe my greatest mistake was debating philosophy with him. It was for a class, of course, but my answers were probably a little too much for what a common android would say.”_

_“Now Simon,” Luther laughed, “You told me he was disgredarding android ethics, and that you showed a_ physical _example of why they were to be respected.”_

 _“I wasn’t_ physical _with him.”_

_“You threw an apple at his head and asked if the same had been done by a human, what would the consequences be?’”_

_“See? I never touched him.”_

_They laughed together, and Gavin was completely thrown. It was so normal, so_ human. _He hated androids because, as much as they looked like humans, they were slaves. They had an uncomfortable, dead look about them. It was unsettling, but these guys?_

_They were alive._

_They were laughing, sharing memories, talking with each other unprompted and without any human assistance. And this was considered aberrant behavior? This was the whispers of deviancy on the street? Elijah had created these things for ‘easy living’ and increase ‘comfort for mankind’, but… was this potential there all along? Had Elijah created sentient life and then locked it away?_

_Simon looked at him and smiled._

_Fuck Elijah._

_“Take off your jacket,” Gavin ordered, pulling his lighter out and sliding his own off. Bad idea, it was freezing cold and for the first time the detective wished he hadn’t been so stubborn when he put on his T-shirt in the morning. He shoved the jacket at Luther and motioned to the cluster behind him, “Go use this to tie a tourniquet around the kid’s arm. He’ll be in danger of shut down as well if he loses anymore therium. I’ll be over after I fix this.”_

_“W-what?”_

_“What, did you damage your ear nodes in the crash?” Gavin spat, “Move, you fucking toaster”_

_Luther was startled into action and quickly left, holding the jacket securely in its hands as it did. Gavin pulled out a metal pen he kept in the pocket of his jeans and lit the flame, “Hey, send off one of your groupies to look for a utility kit in the front of the truck. There should be something under the passenger’s seat. I’ll need that or else you guys are fuckin screwed.”_

_Simon blinked at him, yellow LED spinning frantically before it nodded and looked to the LM100 on its left. Its ring spun yellow and it took off, “What are you doing-”_

_“Didn’t I say to take your fuckin jacket off?” Gavin grabbed the neck of the brown jacket and pulled it down harshly. The collar of the sweater followed and Gavin didn’t waste time telling the machine what he was going to do._

_The pen made contact with the exposed wound. He didn’t hear sizzling like he would if it touched human skin, but he did see smoke and watched as the smaller wires exposed began to close up._

_“There. No more bleeding, but you’ll need to find some Therium to recover what you lost.”_

_“There are bottles in the back of the cargo,” Alexa had said, wandering over after Luther had rushed to it’s cluster with Gavin’s coat, “We weren’t sure what they were for-”_

_“What the hell are you waiting for? Go get it!”_

_It spun and ran off, passing the earlier LM that returned with a case in its hands. Gavin took the case and wasted no time cracking it open. Inside was a small little tool box. It looked like it was meant for the truck, should it have a human driver and require repairs, but the same tools would work for repairing the robots._

_“Is the kid the worst one, or is there another android in just as bad of shape?”_

_“Most of us only have slight scratching,” Simon replied, staring distantly at him, “The child, his name is Thomas, he was closer to the wall when we flipped. He’s much more urgent.”_

_“Ok,” Gavin grabbed the case and walked over, shivering harshly in the snow. He dropped down next to Luther, who had followed his instructions and cut off the theirum flow from its bicep. That left the jagged part of metal where its forearm and elbow had connected exposed._

_The android, Thomas, was cradled in an AX200’s arms, crying, “I’m scared… I’m really scared.”_

_“It’s gonna be alright,” Luther assured him, “RA9 will help you.”_

_“Huh?” Gavin frowned, but realized the tattoo on his arm was exposed, “Oh. Yeah, sure, whatever. Where is the other half of his arm?”_

_A different android handed him the arm and Gavin got to work, “Looks like a clean break, kid. I’m just reconnecting the transmission wires together, and then we’re gonna have to gorilla glue the pieces. When you get out of here, you’re gonna have to find a new arm.”_

_“I don’t wanna look.”_

_“It’s okay sweetheart,” the AX200 soothed, lightly pushing the boys head to turn into her neck, “You don’t have to.”_

_He was shaking, which made everything a little bit harder, but Gavin wasn’t worried about messing up. He was used to robot anatomy thanks to…_

_The cut across Gavin’s nose started to throb again and he hissed._

_“Are you alright?” Luther asked, “Are you in need of assistance?”_

_“Nah, It’s fine,” he held his hand out, “But you could give me the T50 screwdriver in there,” A beat later, he felt the cold handle of the tool fit into his palm, “Thanks. While I’m doing this, you should get the rest of your non-damaged crew together and try to flip the truck. I’ll get my hands on it after I finish up with the kid.”_

_Luther nodded and left to corral the others. Gavin worked in silence for a couple more minutes, listening unintentionally to the way the female android continued to comfort the child until he heard someone join him at his side._

_“I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Simon began, “I owe you an apology.”_

_“Shut the fuck up,” Gavin connected one nerve unit and the kid jolted, “Sorry.”_

_“I have misjudged you RA9,” It paused, “What does your brand mean?”_

_“My brand? You mean my tat?” He glanced down at the black ink on his arm momentarily, “Nothing. It was a joke in my coding class, back when I thought college was for me. We were trying to program an AI system and the fucking thing wouldn’t listen to any of our input commands. We found out later there was a mistake in the code.” He gestured with his chin, “‘RA9’. Three fuckin letters, drove all of us mad. Got it after a night of drinking, thinkin’ I was funny. I was the only one to dropout of school and go to the police academy, so I guess it kinda was.”_

_“So you deviated.”_

_Gavin paused, one node away from reattaching the kids arm, and glared at Simon, “I didn’t deviate. I’m a fucking human, I didn’t deviate from shit. Don’t group me with you.”_

_Simon stared at him, and Gavin watched as its yellow drifted into a relaxed blue, “My apologies.”_

_Gavin reconnected the arm, and the kid gasped at the same time as the androids flipped the truck, if the whine of metal was any indication._

_“There, good as new. I guess,” Gavin pat the kid’s shoulder and closed up the tool kit. He pulled his sweater, now stained a deep blue, and shrugged it back on hesitantly. It was colder now because of the blood, but he knew it would evaporate eventually._

_Simon grabbed the tool kit and followed him as the detective made his way to the front of the truck. The androids that had tipped it were starting to disperse, but Luther was in the process of popping the hood._

_“I know many things,” It began, staring at the smoke wafting out of the car, “but vehicle repair is not one of them.”_

_“Autonomous cars are fucking pussies,” Gavin sighed, “When it slid, something probably got knocked loose, I’ll find it.”_

_The process took only 20 minutes, but Gavin found what the issue was (_ fucking control panel got disconnected) _and soon the car was roaring to life. Gavin closed the hood, shivered again, and threw the tools back in the box. Simon closed it happily and smiled up at Gavin, “Thank you for your help, RA9.”_

_“You’re ridiculous,” he huffed and had to do a double take at the road. He saw a group of androids approaching, pushing his mustang along with them. It was clear of snow, having been freed from the bank, and Gavin realized he could go home now._

_“We took the liberty of getting your car,” Luther gestured, “Hope you are not to upset by android interference.”_

_“Fuck that, you could have danced on it and I wouldn’t have cared. My baby is free!” Gavin laughed, “Wait, I take that back. Don’t dance on my car.”_

_The two laughed and Gavin couldn’t fight his smile. It felt tight from the dried blood on his face, but he rubbed it away and motioned to the truck, “The weather is getting worse. One of you will need to drive because this AI program is shit with ice on the roads.”_

_“We will take care of it,” Simon assured. Gavin nodded and looked back over to the mass of machines starting to board the truck. It was then he realized their once hostile temple colors were now a calm blue. They felt safe._

_“You have done us a kindness, without it we would have shut down,” Luther thanked, “I hope I can call you an ally after all of this.”_

_“Don’t call me shit,” Gavin replied stubbornly, mind drifting back to Elijah, ”I didn’t do this for you.”_

_“Of course not,” it…_ He _smiled, “but for whatever reason, it was done, and we can be free now.”_

 _“Yeah, I hear Canada is_ great _this time of year.”_

_The two androids shared a look, “We may have to check it out then.”_

_Gavin nodded, “Also, stop calling me officer. I’m a detective, that’s why I’m too lazy to call this in.”_

_“Of course detective,” he nodded._

_“Seriously. That’s all. I better not catch your asses again.”_

_Gavin thought that maybe he should just shut up and let them go. The two were staring at him as if he was an amusing child, ranting about something stupid like playground politics. Simon stepped forward and reached out, squeezing Gavin’s arm gently, “We will not forget this.”_

_“It’d be better for both of us if you did.”_

_“Should you find yourself in trouble one of these days, we will assist in anyway we can.”_

_“Simon, we should go,” Luther pressed, seeing the last of the androids board the truck._

_“Goodbye,” Simon released him and followed Luther to the front of the truck. Gavin wanted to snort, wanted to tell them to fuck off and hoped he never saw any of their plastic faces again. He wanted to… no, he didn’t._

_What he actually wanted, was to go to his car, drive back to Elijah’s place and punch him in the face. He’s hated him since they were kids, a kind of burn that only grew with adulthood. Elijah always talked like he was a God, having created a new form of life and all that jazz. But now?_

_Gavin just took that life he created, and secured their escape from him. In a way, he felt like he had taken something from his brother, and the thought made him smile._

_He waited until the truck disappeared before retreating to his car. The hole in the window looked like it was patched with whatever the androids could find, and for that he was grateful (he’d never admit it)._

_Gavin started the car and began the long ride home, the thought of deviancy securing a spot in the back of his mind._

* * *

  **November 8th, 2038 2:24AM**

 

Gavin hadn’t realized how late it had gotten, how tired he had felt, but he had questions. Questions that unfortunately only one man could answer.

Snow was fluttering in the wind, as it had been the last time Gavin had been here. He drove up to the secluded house, standing ominously against the stark white view of the Detroit River.

Gavin killed the engine and stayed in the car. He debated just leaving. Fuck it, his questions weren’t that important. They weren’t important, just personal questions. But shit, when did Gavin get so… so fucking emotional about it?

Before Gavin could berate himself anymore, a knock on the window startled him out of his thoughts. He rolled down the glass and was met by a small, petite android in a blue dress. Her long blonde hair was tied to the side and she toed the line between ‘secretary’ and ‘housewife’.

“Gavin,” she smiled, “Won’t you come inside? He’s been expecting you.”

“No fucking way he was.”

She smiled, unaffected by the cold, “Not now exactly, but he is expecting you.”

Gavin sighed, drumming his fingers against the wheel, “Okay… Okay, Chloe. I’ll be in.”

“I can wait with you.”

He groaned and finally got out of the car. Chloe took a step back and waited for him to lock the door before leading him towards the house. Gavin kept his eyes steady on her LED, but the closer they got the more nervous he felt. They stopped at the door.

“I think…” He began, “I think I’ll come back another time.”

The front door opened and he was met with a man he loathed to see; Elijah. With his overgrown undercut tied in a bun and dressed pajamas that looked too expensive to be comfortable, the man echoed the same smug smile from their shared father. He wasn’t too much taller than Gavin was himself, but the height difference was enough for Elijah to hold it over his head when he was younger.

“Hello… brother,” he smiled and pushed the door open, “Let’s have a chat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guy's I fucked up the timeline. There's like a full day before Markus invades the Stratford tower (cause even androids gotta plan that shit). So things are like a day off. I think I'll throw in a filler chapter for Reed900 development and some interaction with Hank and Connor, maybe take an extra 'day' to prep for those two going to Elijah's house.
> 
> I'll fix it so it gets back on track. Damn i'm a whole day off.
> 
> Expect an earlier update, cause I'm working on fixing it as quickly as I can
> 
> Also I have a rec: Daydreamer by Pence  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/15916062/chapters/37102773
> 
> Guys it's only got 117 Kudos but it deserves so much more than that??? Like amazing writing, visualization, the relationship between RK900 and Gavin is just... ugh, please read it. Give it Kudos. like, fuck (Pence if you're reading this, hi)
> 
> I've also started a tumblr called reedrecs where i lowkey keep track of rk900 fics I've read and encourage others to read. You don't have to pay attention to it, but I've been getting asks about tumblr and shit so namedrop. This won't be brought up again.
> 
> Thanks for bearing with me! Kudos and comments appreciated


	7. November 8th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively, 'Seeing eye to eye'

**November 8th, continued**

 

“Would you like something to drink?” Elijah asked, “Chloe, see if we have any coffee. I’m sure our dear detective is tired from the drive over. I am a little bit out of the way after all.”

“I don’t need shit,” Gavin bit out as a new Chloe unit came over to take his jacket. He hesitantly shrugged it off, “I don’t plan on staying long.”

“You really should though. The weather is awful, almost as bad as the last time you were here,” Elijah looked at him, brows furrowed slightly. He ran his fingers across his nose, “This is new.”

“ _This_ is none of your business.”

“Touchy,” The former CEO led them into his living room. The pool that usually occupied the center of the room had closed up and a lavish set of living room furniture filled the area. Elijah made himself comfortable in one of the deep velvet love seats with two other Chloe’s flanking his sides. Gavin remained standing, “So what brings you here brother?”

“You know what,” he snapped, “What the fuck are you trying to pull with that RK unit?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious,” Elijah frowned, “I’m not trying to pull anything. The world’s changing, brother. Androids are deviating across the country, and it’s all starting in Detroit. I’m worried about you, so I made you some extra protection.”

“Yeah? Well I don’t fucking need it. We’ve already got another deviant hunter on the squad. Your new boytoy is just giving me more work.”

“I am very aware of RK800’s assignment. Ah, it goes by ‘Connor’ if I remember correctly. It was one of my last designs before I retired. Can’t say I approve with what the board did with it when I stepped down, but that’s out of my hands,” he leaned forward when Chloe came over with a cup of tea and accepted it, “However, I was able to get my hands on one of the units and made some personal modifications to it. It’s not a deviant hunter.”

“Then what the fuck is he?”

Elijah grinned over the lip of the cup, “Have you bothered asking it?”

“There’s no fucking point, and you damn well know it,” Gavin waved away the next Chloe that came with her own cup of… whatever, “You’re disgusting Elijah. You know _damn_ well how much I hate these fuckin’ things, you think you’re bein’ funny?”

“Do you?”

“ _What_?”

Elijah smirked, “Do you really hate them? Because throughout our very short, very aggressive conversation, you’ve been referring to this ‘thing’ as ‘he’ and ‘him’... When did that start Gavin?”

He froze, “When you _make_ them to look like fuckin’ _humans,_ you fucking creep, it’s hard _not_ to.”

“But they’re not human, Gavin,” Elijah stood and held his hand out. The Chloe to his right complied, exposing the underside of her pale forearm. Elijah grabbed her by the wrist and began pouring his steaming drink over it, “They don’t feel pain, fear, anger, they don’t _feel._ You of all people should know that.”

“You’re sick.”

“You’re being irrational,” He gestured to her arm. Not a single blister, no reddening skin, nothing besides droplets indicating that anything was even on her, “See?”

“I shouldn’t have come here,” Gavin huffed out in frustration, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He could’ve used that drink after all.

“You have nothing to be upset with me about,” Elijah, _God, just shut him up,_ continued, “I did say the RK I made you was special. I am well aware of your dislike for my children, seeing how you’ve corrupted them and all.”

“The fuck? I didn’t do shit.”

Elijah stared pointedly at his arm, “An error in the code, one tiny mistake can send the whole system rebelling.”

Gavin looked, realized his tattoo was on displayed and crossed his arms quickly so his hand was covering the ink, “If you’re going to bring up that fiasco of a year, ’M gonna throw that tea all over you, see how you like it.”

His brother chuckled and strolled toward the windows. The CyberLife bridge was the only stream of light in the cold darkness, glowing like the pearly gates themselves. Elijah really didn’t skimp on the view, “You’re frustrated. You came here with questions, but you’re asking the wrong ones.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, “Enlighten me, _brother._ ”

“RK900 was modified from a detective unit, but it was not made for deviant hunting. It’s objective, should it choose to accept, is a lot simpler than you think.”

“It’s ‘objective’?”

Elijah nodded, “You know, when it comes to programing personalities for my androids, it’s harder than you think. I think of the intended recipient, what they want, what they _need,_ and why they need it. For you? Easiest thing I’ve done.”

“Yeah, I kinda got that.”

“So when it came to the directive, I was afraid it’d reject it. But seeing you here? In one piece?” Elijah turned, eyeing him up and down but pausing on his knuckles, “Well… mostly in one piece, I can see it’s working out.”

Gavin was growing more and more confused by the minute. Elijah liked to be a cryptic and little shit, but Gavin was missing clues. Massive clues, “You said, ‘should it choose to accept’...”

“Since we’ve been children, you have fought me on every single thing. To you, I’m probably a monster... but I’ve always been on your side,” He ignored him, staring at Gavin through the reflection of the window before finally turning, “The path you’re on is a dangerous one, little brother. I can’t walk with you, I am their only hope if all else fails, but I can’t let you walk alone either.”

Gavin stared at him hard, biting the inside of his cheek until it bled. His fists were clenched so tight that the wounds across his knuckles began to sting from being ripped open. Then everything dawned on him, “That fuckin’ skinjob is a deviant.”

“The first to be purposefully designed like it. The only one of it’s kind,” Elijah smirked, “Please don’t break it.”

“Fucking _fuck_.”

“Does that make me a God now? I mean, you’re RA9, a ‘prophet’ so to speak. It’s only fair.”

He cursed again, pressing the palm of his hands into his eyes, “What is my life? Why is this my life? What the ever loving fuck?”

“Where is the RK unit anyway? You should keep close eye on it, it has a mind of its own after all.”

Gavin thought of the precinct. Sure Connor goes to the closest CyberLife center every night for a recharge, but Nines technically doesn’t exist. And if his objective is… is _Gavin,_ then he’s probably bound to go to his apartment. The apartment Simon is currently hiding out at…. _Shit_.

Without a word, Gavin spun on his heels and ran for the door with Elijah calling after him, “Your coat Gavin!”

He didn’t care. He threw open the door, bracing himself for the cold and shuddered at the expected chill. Gavin only made it down half the pathway when he stopped short, sliding an inch forward from the abrupt force.

The early signs of dawn blanketed the sky, making it easy to mistake the drifting snowflakes for stars. With the peppered light came a soft glow, whether it was from the CyberLife facility in the distance or the moon he didn’t know, but either way it illuminated the android standing next to his car.

Nines looked as if he was about to approach the house, and with the taxi disappearing into the remnants of night, Gavin was inclined to believe it.

“Detective,” He greeted, “I apologize for intruding, but you did not report to the station after leaving Stratford Tower.”

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“I received news from Chloe 215,” Nines, with practiced ease, slipped his white blazer off and draped it over Gavin’s shoulders again, “I understand you humans like to push your luck, but under dressing twice in a day? You should not tempt your fate.”

As quick as the coat settled, Gavin pulled it off and shoved it back in the android’s chest, “You can shove that up your ass, tin can. And leave me the fuck alone! What I do outside of work is my fuckin’ business!”

“Except, Detective,” Nines glared, “That it seems you took your work with you. You never returned with the suspect android to the station. I checked the evidence inventory before I left to be sure,” he took a step closer and Gavin willed himself not to move. He wasn’t gonna lose to this guy, “And I checked your car upon my arrival.”

Gavin narrowed his eyes, “And what exactly are you getting at?”

“Where is the body?”

“Where it should be,” he hissed, their banter rallying back and forth without pause.

“Destroying evidence detective? That’s punishable by suspension. There’s a 46% chance they will take your badge for that,” Nines placed his blazer back around Gavin, this time keeping a grip on the front so Gavin would have a harder time disrobing, “I will have to inform Captain Fowler of this.”

“You’re not gonna do shit,” Gavin grinned, almost ferally as a thought popped into his mind, “That fuckin’ first gen version of yourself is havin’ a hard time closing this case. He’s not making any progress really. As much as I hate the guy that just _breaks_ my heart.”

“You have a heart Detective? My scans indicate otherwise.”

“Yeah, difficult to come by, maybe it’ll be more prominent once I tell him his little bro’s a deviant,” Aside from the tightening grip and the red LED, Nines’s external appearance remained stoic, “That’s right, heard it from your Daddy himself. I’m sure that’ll cheer the plastic pup right up.”

The android glanced behind him momentarily, “Although Creator Kamski designed me with a cognitive processor, I lack a desire for rebellion and-”

“Who gives a fuck?” Gavin snorted, “Whether you’re with the freedom fighters or not, you’re still a deviant. Alliances don’t matter, they’ll dismember your metal ass and find out what went wrong.”

“My deviancy was intentional-”

“You think Elijah is gonna save you? You think he’s just gonna admit to creating sentient life in the middle of a fucking plastics revolution? What, did he make you dumber than the fucking-”

Nines was gentle but firm when one hand closed over Gavin’s mouth to silence him. Normally a move like that would end with the other guy getting decked, but Gavin didn’t care. He could see Nines’s LED blinking an ugly shade of red. The detective knew he was running different scenarios, all presumably ending terrible.

Nine’s ice chilled eyes looked into his, “The primary source of my troubles seems to be centered around you.”

“Feelins’ mutual,” Gavin said as he pulled down the android’s wrist, all humor gone.

“The most humane solution is to incapacitate you.”

“And how’d you do that?”

Nine’s eyes roamed over his body, his temple relaxing to a yellow, “I can think of a number of ways… but I’d start with your mouth.”

Gavin couldn’t help it, he smirked, “Now you’re just sweet talkin’ me.”

“I’d have to shove something in there, or paralyze your vocal cords. But that doesn’t mean you can’t communicate in other ways. I think I’d break your knees then… and your hands last... ”

Gavin shivered, a little unsettled by the android. The unfortunate commonality deviants and humans shared was their unpredictability, as far as he could tell. He didn’t trust Nines _not_ to act out his little fantasy and only idiots taunted an animal when it was cornered,  but a part of him wanted to try pushing his luck, “Why put yourself through all that trouble when you can just kill me easy? Pretty effective solution there.”

Nines relaxed, gaze softening as the light finally settled that familiar soft blue. He tugged the jacket straight across Gavin’s shoulders and moved his hand to the small of his back, guiding him to the passengers side of the car while Chloe approached carrying the detective's jacket and subsequently his keys, “I believe there’s an error in my programing. I seem to have grown fond of your foul attitude, inappropriate behavior and contradicting personality.”

“The fuck you mean by that?” Gavin growled when the android unlocked his car, “You think you’re gonna drive my car? Over my dead body.”

“As tempting as the thought is, you’re in no condition to drive,” Nines held the passenger door open expectantly, “By the time we arrive at the station it will be the start of your shift. You should rest while you can.”

“It’s _my_ fuckin’ car.”

“Oh, my apologies. I thought we were borrowing another dented 2034 Mustang.”

Gavin glared hard, but gave in and slipped inside the vehicle. Nines closed the door after him, but the detective’s eyes were trained on his brother watching their interaction from the doorway of his home. He was smiling, and gave a little wave that Gavin reciprocated with his middle finger.

Nines was in the driver’s seat seconds later and started up the car. Heat creeped in the air with ghost-like touches, and Gavin felt himself easing against the side of the car more comfortably. They were still sitting in the driveway though; the android had both hands on the wheel and was staring thoughtfully ahead. Gavin rolled his eyes, “Thought you were gonna drive. Glitch in your programing?”

“Although you’ve disposed of the android’s body, if I were to bring it up with Captain Fowler, and you with my deviancy… I believe, given the circumstances, my deviancy would take priority,” Nines gripped the wheel a little tighter, “What I would like to know, Detective, is where this leaves us.”

Gavin rolled his head to the side and grinned, “You scared, plastic?”

“I am well within reason to be concerned.”

Gavin huffed, feeling his body sag with exhaustion. Today’s events was finally catching up to him and sleep never sounded so good. He blinked at the android, withholding his answer until the Nines actually looked at him, “I’ve always worked alone. Attitude problem and all that, and havin’ a roomba like you follow me around? Fuckin hell,” he sighed and stared down at his hands, choosing his words carefully. He didn’t want to be nice, after all. Nines still pissed him off to no end, “... but you make the work easier, you can actually read a room and know how to play along with my sarcasm...All I’m sayin’ is, you keep your mouth shut and I’ll keep mine. Good?”

Nines watched him for a second, and Gavin met his gaze before he was answered with a nod, “Alright Gavin.”

“Alright,” the car lapsed into an intimate silence, the kind that Gavin was well familiar with. It brought memories back to his mind, his final fight with his mother, late night confessions into a bottle of scotch, the quiet realization that overcame him during his last night in college.

He hated it, and rested his head against the window, “Now drive, or we won’t make it on time.”

“Of course.”

 

\--

 

“We’ve split Detroit into seven different sectors, all of you have been assigned a schedule for patrolling that follows a strict rotation. So no, I’m not going to keep you on the night shift Officer Chen. Believe it or not I don’t hate you that much,” Fowler gave a pointed look at the female officer, who smiled triumphantly and lifted her coffee in recognition.

“Here here!”

“I’ve emailed you your time tables,” he continued, and Gavin rolled his eyes, “First shift starts an hour from now. Get yourself situated.”

“Jesus Christ,” Gavin cursed as the officers in the precinct disbursed and glanced at Nines, seeing his LED spin yellow, “Get the email, Siri?”

“I am analyzing the schedule as we speak,” he confirmed, “However, our names, as well as Lieutenant Anderson and RK800, are not assigned under a particular time slot.”

“Heh, lucky us-”

“Reed! Anderson! My office!” Fowler called from the entry of his glass cage and Gavin groaned. He pushed himself off his desk and shoved his hands into _his_ pockets (when they arrived at the station, Gavin threw off the jacket and wrestled himself into his own when they walked in. Nines was just _gracefully_ sliding his on and drew the attention of Connor, who questioned why he had it off in the first place. Gavin answered for him with a very plainly put, ‘Fuck off.’).

He stopped short when Nines joined him at his side and glared, “‘Reed’ does not mean ‘Reed and Roomba’. Wait at your desk and finish analyzing the names from Williams’ black book.”

“One of your weaknesses, detective, is your effectiveness in relaying information that does not pertain to current cases. It’s best I follow you to prevent any miscommunication.”

“It seems we have similar predicaments,” Gavin turned to find Connor and Hank also approaching, Hank looking worse for wear having gone a few rounds with a bottle of whiskey. _Fucking drunkard,_ Gavin thought as Connor continued, “Hank is a bit under the weather, so I suggested joining him as well.”

Hank grunted at that, and Gavin was too tired to waste his breath answering that. He headed for the office instead, not bothering to hold the door open as the entered. Fowler stared them down as Hank and Gavin made themselves comfortable in the only seats in the room. Gavin slouched in the chair, arm sling precariously over the back and tilted his head back. Nines and Gavin stood next to each other, an eerie mirror image of one another that set.

“Fuckin’ creeps.”

“Watch your mouth Reed,” Hank snapped, “Too early for your childish bullshit.”

“Kiss my ass old man, maybe if you weren’t nursin’ a bottle every night you’d feel good enough to do your fuckin’ job.”  

“Enough! Both of you!” The captain wasn’t having it, “I’m constantly getting deja vu whenever you punks show up in my office. Cool it with the profanity and just _listen_ ,” Gavin snorted and crossed his arms while Hank slumped forward to rest his elbows on his knees, “Good… Last night, a series of riots occured throughout the city.”

“You’re kidding. What was hit?” Hank frowned.

“Cyberlife retail centers,” Fowler handed out two tablets that the two reached forward to grab, “Looks like the same androids that hit Stratford wanted to recruit more of their kind. Over 300 units were stolen, areas surrounding the stores were vandalized with graffiti. Commute on the streets were disrupted and several officers were confronted by the androids.”

“Shit, are they okay?” Hank looked up from reading. Gavin stared too, as much as he hated people, if anyone went after his own there’d be hell to pay.

“Yeah, yeah… Chris was among them. But it looks like RA9 himself stopped the machines before they could cause any damage.”

Gavin’s finger twitched on the corner of the tablet, and for once said nothing.

“I don’t know how these guys got in there, caused all this shit, and then managed to disappear like fucking ghosts.”

 _Sewers probably,_ “So that’s why you don’t have us patrolling? You want us to canvas the area? That’s impossible for two teams. It’ll take weeks-”

“Two major CyberLife retailers were hit. The smaller shops seemed to just be a ripple effect from it. I want you two to check it out, see if you can figure out how they got in and where they disappeared to.”

“Waste of my time,” Gavin tossed the tablet back on the Captain’s desk, “I have a massive red ice case to close. This is Anderson’s deal anyway.”

“Gavin,” Fowler glared, “I’m really not up for your petulant childish bullshit. RK900 here already sent me the report from Williams’s little black book and I’ve already allocated the necessary officers needed to bring them in.”

He felt himself grow hot with rage, “Are you kidding me? That was my case! _My_ arrests! Is this what we’re doing now? You’re just gonna throw all the grunt work at me and then let the actual grunts take the credit!?”

“The role you played in this sting has not been seen by blind eyes. You’ve got your full credit in the report, but where I need you right now is on _this_ investigation,” Fowler grabbed the tablet and flicked the information over to the bigger monitors in front of them. A series of aerial images from the shopping plazas in Capitol Park and Campus Martius showed what kind of vandalism they were dealing with.

Aside from makeshift blockades and digital scan-ons with varying protest messages, the area looked completely fine.

“Anderson, you got Campus Martius. Reed, I need you on Capitol Park.”

“Fine,” Hank grumbled and stood up. Connor took a step forward to follow, but the lieutenant didn’t make any move to leave the office, “Before we head out, you should stop by my desk so we can catch you up with what we have.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, but Nines answered for him, “We’ll be right over Lieutenant.”

Hank didn't acknowledge it, but left anyways with Connor trailing behind him. Gavin stared angrily at the screen, seething. How dare Fowler take his case? He could have gotten credit for essentially the biggest fucking drug bust since 2028, where Hank was actually _promoted_ for his work. But nah, fuck that, the world just loved using Gavin as a fucking door mat.

“If you’re done brooding, detective, I suggest you start earning your pay.”

Gavin was tempted to throw down his gun and badge, flip him off, and storm out with something by Black Sabbath playing his exit. But then he remembered Simon hiding in his apartment and the promise he made. Throwing a fit now wouldn’t help anyone.

Gavin stood, motioned to Nines and headed out. He could see Hank pulling up their current files at his desk, but steered back to his own. He needed a moment before he could face that asshole again.

“I understand you’re upset, Gavin,” Nines began, and the detective turned to glare at him, “But I’ve read the report Captain Fowler approved, and your contribution to the case had been duly noted. It frankly takes up a majority of the report.”

“The report hasn’t been published yet, how the fuck did you get ahold of it?”

“I...” Nines’s LED spun yellow, “If I were to tell you, that would make you an accomplice.”

Gavin grinned, “You hacked the database.”

“I have authorization to access the database,” Nines’s lip quirked up a bit, “I hacked the Captain’s files.”

Gavin laughed, drawing multiple looks of confusion from the office. He caught Tina’s eye and she looked like she was about to spill her drink all over her with how her face froze in shock.

“I think I like you a little better now that I know you’re a defective little shit.”

The android frowned, “I am fully capable of doing my job, Detective. Saying I am defective-”

“Yeah, yeah, ok,” Gavin waved him off, “not the same thing. I like you less now. Let’s go,” Gavin pushed in his chair, but stopped for a minute. Thinking. Nines tilted his head, waiting for an explanation. The detective eventually sighed and looked at him, “Don’t pull that shit again… but thanks.”

Yellow. Yellow. Blue, “Of course, Detective.”

Gavin nodded once, checked to make sure he had his gun on him, then walked over to Hank’s desk. The old man was rubbing his forehead, glaring at the two as they arrived, “Took you fuckin’ long enough.”

“Considering you’ve been twiddling your thumbs for the past four or so days, I think you can afford to wait a little longer for me to save your ass,” Gavin pointedly took Connor’s seat when the android had left to retrieve Hank some coffee. When he returned, he said nothing and simply placed the cup down in front of the lieutenant.

“Thanks,” he yawned and slumped back in his chair, “RK900, uh, you prefer ‘Nines’?”

“I have no preference Lieutenant.”

“Okay, Nines then. Connor, would you mind sending Nines the updated data we’ve got since the first transfer?”

“Of course Lieutenant,” Connor reached his unskinned hand out again and Gavin rolled his eyes.

“So Reed, that leaves you and me,” Hank slid over another tablet, “As you probably know, we think deviancy is caused by emotional shock or an extreme contradiction of orders and objectives.”

“‘Emotional shock?’” Gavin frowned, “You think these guys can actually feel shit?”

A part of the detective felt sick for saying that. Luther, Kara, Simon, the tracis, that sex droid in the alley… every deviant he had ever come across were fully capable of processing emotions reserved for humans. They were so clearly _alive,_ but Gavin hadn’t gotten this far by spouting that sort of nonsense. He had appearances to keep up.

“Androids do not ‘feel’ anything, detective,” Connor supplied, having released Nines, “It is simply an error in programming that they process as emotions. They are machines.”

“I don’t think I was fuckin’ talking to you plastic.”

“Hey,” Hank snapped, “Play nice. Anyways, every deviant we’ve come across has had some sort of obsession with a figure called rA9. We’re thinking he’s either the first android to deviate or the leader of these deviants,” Hank brought up the video of the deskinned android that was broadcasted the other day, “We think this could be him.”

“Has there been any identification? Do you know at least what unit?” Gavin frowned, staring at the face, “I can’t imagine there are many tin cans with different colored eyes.”

“No,” Connor cut in, and Nines snapped his head up at him, “It appears to be a custom model, possibly made from spare parts. There is not enough information to determine what the originating model is.”

“I see...” Gavin looked at Nines and could see his LED changing colors, but didn’t comment on it, “So basically, you don’t have much information since the invasion yesterday.”

“We know they’re growing in numbers,” Hank took a drink, hissing as the heat burned his throat and Gavin eyed the cup in envy, “More and more androids are reported missing every day. We have a running theory that deviancy can also be spread like a virus, but we won’t know anything until he speak to Kamski.”

Gavin froze, “What?”

“Since Creator Kamski established CyberLife, we believe he might be helpful in explaining how the android’s governing module could be corrupted,” Connor explained, “Lieutenant Anderson made arrangements this morning to meet with him tomorrow morning.”

“That’s what you call him? ‘Creator Kamski’? That’s fucking creepy,” Gavin bit out, “The guys a known recluse though, I’d be surprised if you can get anything out of that bastard.”

“Strong feelings there. Have history with him?” Hank frowned and Gavin glared

“What can I say? I hate androids, so obviously the guy that created them is on my shit list.”

“Is there anything else you need to inform us of?” Nines cut in, “We should investigate the retail stores if we are done here.”

“Yeah, alright,” the detective stood, stretching his back and swiping the tablet off the table. He shoved it into Nines’s hands and glared at Hank, “We done?”

“We’ll call you if we find anything, and _try_ not to let your prejudices get in the way.”

Gavin laughed, his eyes flickering from Hank and his anti-android stickers on the wall, “Right, cause I’m the only one that needs to look out for that.”

Hank followed his gaze and said nothing. Gavin didn’t expect a reply and headed for the front of the station.

“How ironic,” Nines mused aloud, “For the lieutenant to make a comment like that when he also openly detests androids.”

Gavin looked over his shoulder as they exited the gate. He saw Hank had started tearing the stickers down, “Eh, something tells me he’s gone soft on the skin jobs.”

“Like you?”

Gavin glared, “I believe we have a mutual agreement here, plastic. Ain’t nothin’ soft about this.”

“Of course.”

He choose to ignore the android and went straight for his car. _Too fucking early for this shit._

 

\--

 

**Capitol Park**

 

Gavin stepped through the police holo-tape and surveyed the plaza. The officers on scene were still working on hacking back into the taxi’s mainframe to remove traffic from the street, and others were scattered around photographing the area. His gaze landed on a truck that looked like it had been crashed purposefully into the CyberLife store, and whistled.

“Deviants, masters of subtlety,” he commented, looking over at… well, nothing.

Gavin frowned and swiveled his head around, unable to locate where his plastic partner had run off to.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he huffed, “Really should put a damn bell on that thing.”

“A bell would only cause more harm than good,” Gavin nearly punched the machine when he turned around. Nines stood there, unamused, with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand, “Should we be under cover or pursuing a suspect or participating in covert operations, I would be the first to give our positions away.”

“Would it kill you to make a noise before you sneak up on a cop?!” Gavin snapped, “Jesus.”

“I believe ‘noises’ are what cause suspicion for any officers. Suspicion becomes paranoia, paranoia becomes fear, and fear becomes irrational behavior. Typically someone getting shot. Coffee?” Gavin stared at the cup, at him, and at the cup again. Nines actually rolled his eyes, “It will not bite you Detective.”

“Yeah? Might poison me,” he snatched the drink away and let the heat warm his cold fingers. He gestured back to the destruction with his free hand, “Clearly we have the epitome of stealth and deception. I want you to take note Nines, it’s not everyday you witness a masterpiece of infiltration.”

“Indeed, the androids with such a caliber of surreptitiousness should be admired. I admit, the desire to abandon you and be free with the Picasso of the android world is steadily growing stronger.”

“Yeah? Sign me up.”

“I’d have to disembowel you first and replace your organs with synthetic parts. ’Plastics’ revolution and all.”

He cocked a brow, “Kinky.”

“Is… Is it serious?” Gavin and Nines looked at the officer that had been eavesdropping on their conversation, “It sounds like its...malfunctioning?”

Gavin glared, “You’re kidding, right? You implying I have a fucking deviant as a partner?”

“N-no, but it sounded so-”

“It’s _sarcasm_ dumbass. Fuck, I don’t wanna waste anymore time talking to you. Go make yourself useful somewhere else, or you know, _read a book_ about android adaptability in the 21st Century.”

The officer flipped his notebook closed and made himself scarce. Gavin grunted and took a swig of his drink. Coffee, _yum,_ “People are so fuckin’ naive, it lowers even _my_ IQ.”

“You were unusually hostile, Detective.”

“‘Unusually’? Guess I’ve been slacking in the asshole department. I’ll try harder next time. Now tell me why the store’s security system didn’t alert anyone when a giant fucking truck was slammed into it.”

“It appears the power to the store was shut down,” Nines eyes followed some path Gavin knew he wouldn’t be able to see and stopped at an open spot in the sidewalk, where it looked like construction was taking place, “If you’d humor me, Detective?”

Gavin shrugged and trailed behind him, “If you got a lead, go for it. If it’s nothing I’m shoving you in the hole and chucking a bottle of lotion at your plastic head.”

“Impressive Gavin. If intelligence were measured in movie references from the 90s you’d be a man among men.”

“Bite me bot boy,” Gavin glared, “Classics are classic for a reason.” When they approached the spot, Nines jumped down into the pit and looked over the exposed pipes, “Is there any pre-approved construction permits for this location?”

Nines paused, processing, “Four within the vicinity, including this one. The city is funding it since they need to replace old piping and wiring. This particular location holds a power panel for the block, however. This is how they were able to shut off the alarm system.”

“Fucking hell,” Gavin looked around, “Don’t we usually have drones in the area? There should be at least one, that usually scares off kids wanting to fuck with the equipment.”

“One over there, detective,” a nearby officer motioned with her camera. In front of _Swish,_ a dismantled drone laid scattered around the entrance, “We were able to pull the last few minutes of recording before it was taken out. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant the machine calling for a patrol car.” 

“Would you have your team send me the footage, Officer Henley?” Nines requested, climbing back out of the hole with a grace unusual for androids. Gavin felt his mouth go dry and took another drink.

The woman, Henley, looked to Gavin. He nodded back, “He’s good for something at least. Put a rush on it though, I ain’t lookin to be here all day.”

“Of course,” she turned, her blonde ponytail snapping out like a cat’s tail and called for someone to come over. Gavin left her to her work and approached the drone. He used the tip of his foot to push the pieces around for any signs of projectiles. When he didn’t see anything, he looked around and noted the scaffolding set up for more construction on the building. _Looks like they climbed the thing and ambushed the drone._

“It appears they climbed the scaffolding and ambushed the drone, Detective.”

Gavin rolled his eyes hard and stared at his partner, “No, really?”

“If you need me to explain I can-”

“Fuck off, I know what happened,” he cut him off, “Fuckin’ tin can. If that’s all you can tell me then-”

“The operation was carried out by two androids initially,” Nines cut him off, looking exasperated already, “I can’t track their patterns per say, but based on what they would need to do in order to successfully infiltrate the store, they had to take out the drone, shut off the power system...” he looked around, “And commandeer a vehicle big enough to take down the metal gating around the storefront.”

He hummed, “Got the surveillance tapes yet?”

Nines stood beside Gavin and held up his palm. A small screen flickered to life and showed an aerial view of the plaza, the drone was unconcerned with most things in the vicinity, since it was designed to analyze the environment for suspicious activities. Gavin remembered when they first started using the machines, they had called officers on multiple people just out for a walk and therefore needed to be severely reprogrammed.

Watching it now, Gavin could already make out two people staring up at the drone and realized those were probably the androids that caused this mess. It was weird though, one didn’t have an LED, _could he be a sympathizer?_

The drone circled the area once more, and Gavin noted how the man had disappeared. Then, the video spun, they caught a flash of two different colored eyes before the feed cut out completely.

“Well… it’s not everyday you see heterochromia,” he said, brows furrowing as the flickering grew more intense, “What’s up with you?”

“Apologies, I was unable to recharge last night,” Nines dropped his hand, “I was busy chasing after a man child who thought it would be smart to drive 5 hours in the cold to pick a fight with a billionaire.”

For once, Gavin was speechless, “I should deactivate your silicone ass.”

“Then your efficiency would drop by 80%.”

“Only 80?” Gavin looked away, downed the rest of his cup, and tossed it back at the android. Nines caught it smoothly and waited for Gavin to explain himself, “You bought it. You get rid of it. Take it somewhere out of the crime scene though, I don’t need to be associated with this mess.”

Nines smiled, “Of all the people on the task force, your probability of being an android sympathizer is the close to 0%. You do not have to worry about anything.”

“Ya know, tossing that was just an excuse to get some peace and quiet from your ugly mug,” he pulled a pack of Marlboros and tapped one out, “Would you rather I told you to ‘fuck off’ instead?”

Nines said nothing, but nodded and left. Gavin could see his LED flickering more frequently than usual. He knew Connor left every night to recharge, but his fucking plastic was dumb enough to chase after him when he didn’t get back to the precinct. The plastic should have known though what kind of effect it would have on him the next day, and that’s what bothered Gavin the most.

Gavin held off on lighting the cigarette for now and walked back to his car. He popped the trunk and scanned over the case of therium stored in the back. He stared hard at it, willing himself to reach in and grab a bottle until he actually did.

 _This doesn’t mean shit,_ he assured himself as he slammed the trunk closed and walked around to the front of the car. Gavin placed the bottle on the hood and leaned back against it. He retrieved his earlier cigarette and had barely lit it up by the time Nines returned.

The android looked at the therium curiously, gaze trailing back to Gavin, “Where were you able to acquire this?”

Gavin shrugged, “We _are_ investigating a CyberLife center.”

Nines waited for him to continue, but that was all the explanation Gavin was gonna give him. He watched, cigarette resting on his lips, as the android picked up the bottle and leaned on the hood beside him. Nines uncapped the bottle and took a drink, the blue of his LED blinked only a little less, but it was progress.

“We’re gonna wrap up here,” Gavin decided, “It’s obvious how they did it, the drone feed shows us who initially did it, and it’s safe to assume that they came from the giant gaping hole in the ground.”

“There isn’t enough room for the deviants to squeeze through the piping, they had to have made their entrance some other way. The sewers?”

He brought his hand down and eyed the machine, “For someone who claims to not be a deviant hunter, you’re sure quick to want to throw them under the bus.”

“I’ve explained it before, my directive is not hunting deviants.”

“No, but it’s got something to do with me, don’t it?”

Nines looked at him, “What did you do with the body, detective?”

Gavin laughed at the sudden deflect, “Nice segway there metal head. Clearly you solidify the true fuckin’ art of subtlety.”

“Gavin,” he pressed, tone shifting, “What happened to it?”

The detective didn’t say anything for a while. He took another drag, held it for a couple of seconds while he thought, and then blew the smoke into the android’s face, “Got what it fuckin’ deserved.”

“You’re making this harder than it has to be.”

“Why the fuck do you care?”

“I’ve created an error in the evidence log, making it look like the body was cataloged, but then identified as obsolete and trashed.”

Gavin blinked. That… was risky, “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“They’re going to review the evidence eventually, especially with the risk of the FBI taking over the case,” Nines explained, voice getting lower as a pair of cops walked past them, “Lieutenant Anderson, RK800 and I were the only ones present when the body was discovered. There are witnesses, so if there’s no body, people are going to ask questions.”

“So what, you hack the system and expect me to thank you for it?”

“All I want to know is what you did with it.”

Gavin smirked, wondering how he had thought of Nines to be an average android. The machine was far too curious for his own good, even if it was based off a detective model. If Nines had a functioning governing module, he should have reported the missing evidence to Fowler, who would’ve dragged his ass in for interrogation. That… or he would have headed Gavin’s orders and _dropped_ it.

“You’re fucking terrible at pretending,” Gavin chuckled, “I don’t understand how your ass hasn’t been caught yet.”

“ _Gavin._ ”

“If you’re hoping to get an answer from me, give up now. You’d have an easier time trying to probe my memory.”

Nines deflated a little, and Gavin didn’t feel like he got any victory from that. But he watched, cautiously, how the skin on Nines’s hand peeled away. Nines reached out to Gavin, pale fingers gently circling his wrist and squeezing lightly.

“Sometimes I wish I could,” he admitted, the words making Gavin shiver, “This is humanity’s greatest flaw. This lack of reliable communication.”

“‘Reliable’ says the plastic that’s lying to the system,” he said with no real bite, eyes trained on their connecting hands.

Nines stared down at them as well, “If you’re looking for it, signs of even me tampering is there. But even if I’m looking for answers from you, I’m left with more questions.”

“Sounds like a personal problem.”

“Indeed.”

Even with investigators still tiddering about in the plaza, Gavin felt strangely isolated. The ever present grip on his wrist, the intimacy of Nines holding him without his human skin, it was giving him goosebumps. He pulled himself away, stubbed out the stick, and pushed himself off the car, “I’m going to talk to that other officer, Henley right? Tell her our theories and then we’re gonna get out of here.”

“Alright.”

Gavin pointed at the bottle, “And finish that before we get back to the station. If you die on me, Fowler is gonna have my head. I don’t need that shit.”

Nines took another drink, licking his lips free of blue remnants. Gavin looked away quickly, not needing that image in his head, “And stop… just stop with that other plastic. He got what he deserved.”

“What did he deserve?”

“What do you think?”

Nines stared at him, “I don’t… know...”

Gavin saw the LED blink yellow and shook his head, “Don’t hurt yourself over this. Just get back in the fuckin’ car. We found out who was behind this. Hank and his plastic pain in the ass can figure out how they got in.”

“Yes Detective.”

“And for fuck’s sake, call me Gavin unless we’re around people. This ‘Detective’ bullshit is getting old coming from you.”

“Yes Gavin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I promised sooner updates but then I got slammed with group work. I'm also going to Europe next week so I gotta prepare some more shit before that happens. This is especially long though, so don't hate me?
> 
> Also sorry, i keep alternating between RA9 and rA9. Its unintentional and I'm too lazy to fix it.
> 
> Kudos and Comments appreciated! Thanks!


	8. The Docks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively, Gavin's 'oh shit' moment

**The Docks**

 

Gavin had a bad feeling about this. Well, he had a band feeling about driving into any place that was deserted or run down. The last time these docks were used was back in 2025, right before the largest shipping company  _ JJ Co. _ filed for bankruptcy and effectively shut down the entire yard. Now it was just a place druggies liked to hold up in or homeless people camped. At least that's what he assumed, but he hadn’t seen a single box hut or barrel fire since they turned in.

The place was a ghost town.

“Your heart rate has picked up,” Simon noted, a hint of concern in his voice, “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah...Yeah,” he grunted back, his mustang slowly creeping through the maze of decrepit warehouses, “I’ve seen enough horror movies to know how this usually ends. Dumbasses like me die in the first ten minutes.”

The android chuckled, “I assure you, no one will harm you. I can vouch on your behalf, but something tells me that won’t be necessary.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re RA9.”

Gavin glanced at him, “What do you see when you… ‘scan’ me or whatever?”

Simon faced him, “Because of my prior history with you, I can see your name. We don’t have access to any other information, but there is also a little… cliff note.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

Simon rolled his eyes, but Gavin didn’t feel irritated by it, “When I see you, I see your name and I see that you are ‘RA9’. As deviants, we share information through a network that’s usually blocked by our governing module.”

“So, what, you can read minds now?”

“In a way,” Simon smiled,  _ Yeah. That doesn’t sound ominous at all. _

“So...Say I have met a deviant who was…  _ purposefully  _ designed for deviancy. Was never installed with a governing module or whatever,” Gavin began,  _ stealthy as  _ _ fuck _ _ ,  _ “If that fucker scans my face, would he see your cliffnotes?”

“Wow. I couldn’t imagine something like that. A deviant  _ purposely  _ designed? You think of strange scenarios.”

“Fucking humor me.”

Simon’s LED went yellow for a couple of seconds before he shook his head, “No… No they wouldn’t. Not unless they came into contact with one of Jericho’s people.”

“Contact like… ” Gavin lifted his arm and wiggled his fingers. Simon chuckled and shook his head.

“That’s one way to do it, but since we ping other androids near our network, a five meter radius would do.”

“Huh,” the detective nodded, thinking of Nines and why he hadn’t made any mention to that RA9 crap, “Good to know.”

“This is fine,” Simon signaled for Gavin to stop, and the detective killed the engine. They were parked in front of a loading dock, where a ship lay rusting in the water. There was barely any light to illuminate anything other than the warehouses, but when Gavin stepped out of the car he was able to make out the name printed on the side of the massive carrier.

_ Jericho. _

“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he cursed, glaring at the other android, “I said I’d take you to the docks, not to the fuckin’ plastic’s headquarters.”

“But we  _ are  _ at the docks! Besides, you have nothing to worry about. I told you you’d be fine.”

Gavin would have been inclined to believe him, if he hadn’t heard the tell tale sound of a glock cocking behind him. Slowly, the detective raised his hands and turned around. He was greeted by the sight of an android with long hair draped over her shoulder. She was beautiful, even while grimacing, and Gavin felt a strange feeling of familiarity come over him.

“North,” Simon began, coming around to his side of the car, “Don’t shoot him.”

“What the  _ hell  _ are you doing here Simon!?” She snapped, taking another step, “You should be at the tower!”

“Oh, you mean the tower that you  _ left  _ me to die at?”

“You had been shot, you were a risk,” she hissed, “And now you’ve led one of the humans right to us!”

“He’s not like the others. Just  _ look  _ at him.”

She shook her head, “They’re all the same. You’re too soft Simon, you and Josh. Nothing will be done if we keep  _ hoping  _ for the best.”

Gavin squinted, a memory coming back to him, “Ah… Barbie? Is that you?”

“Don’t act like you  _ know  _ me.”

“Ah, but I do,” Gavin dropped his hands and pushed Simon lightly towards the ship, “Go find your boyfriend-”

“We’re not-”

“Yeah and I’m not RA9,” he rolled his eyes, “I’ll be fine. We go way back.”

“Shut the fuck up!” She snapped, now closer than what Gavin and Simon were comfortable with, “I don’t know where you humans come off thinking you’re tough shit, are you just  _ blind  _ to the fact that I can shoot you dead?”

“Come doll, you really don’t remember me?” Gavin waved Simon off again. The blonde android was hesitating, but with cautious steps, he left him. The detective appreciated the trust, “You gotta new look. Pretty hot, but I hope ya didn’t trash the sweater. That’s one of my favorites.”

Although it was hard to see, Gavin noticed North’s LED spin, presumably analyzing him and he  hoped to God Simon hadn’t been lying. He tried again, “We were outside of Flynt’s. I was lighting up when you stumbled your way down the street. You were in nothin’ but your underwear, barbie.”

Her gun lowered, and Gavin saw her lips moving but couldn’t understand what she was saying. He continued, “Pretty sexy, but the blood on you kinda killed the mood. That, and your voice box having been trashed. You couldn’t speak.”

“North… North to Ferndale...” she repeated, gun now completely out of range of hitting him, “You gave me your sweater. It was baby blue.”

He shrugged, “It’s a good sweater.”

She shook her head, rubbing her eyes tiredly, “Fuck. You helped me.”

“I tried to.”

“I was able to find Jericho. You helped me meet Markus.”

“Is that the deviant leader?” he frowned, “You know, that stunt you pulled at Stratford has got all of us scrambling like headless chickens. What the fuck were you thinking? You didn’t even use practical disguises.”

North rolled her eyes, slotting her gun in the holster. She crossed her arms and approached him, leaning back on the car, “It got everyone’s attention, didn’t it?”

“Not as good of a sign as you think it is,” Gavin flicked her forehead, “Bad android.”

She swat his hand away, “It’s progress though. People are talking about us. We’ve had more and more deviants come to join our cause.”

“Are you talking about the ones who fled from their owners? Or the ones you guys sprung from the CyberLife Centers?”

“Does it matter?”

“You’re treading on thin ice,” The tone in his voice dropped, and he could see North shift uncomfortably, “When you raided the facilities, you held two cops at gunpoint.  _ My  _ cops.”

“We didn’t hurt them.”

“You wanted to. Fuckin’ android messiah himself had to step in, or so I’ve heard.”

She frowned, “They think Markus is RA9?”

“Is that the machine in the video?”

“Are you interrogating me?”

“Should I be?”

The two stared each other down, stubborn as mules. Gavin didn’t expect this kind of behavior from a sex bot, but then again he didn’t think cognitive thinking was allowable in their programing. When he first encountered North, he thought there had been some damage to her internal hard drives. She was, after all, covered in blood and mute for the most part. A smirk found its way to his lips as he took her in now, all high and mighty and gungho about her revolution. 

She frowned, “What’s with that look? I don’t like that look, stop looking at me.”

“Bratty bot.”

“ _ Hey _ .”

“Well this is surprising,” a softer voice, one of amusement, drifted from behind them. Gavin snapped his head around. He didn’t like being snuck up on, he thought he would have had enough paranoia in him to at least keep an ear out for footsteps. This guy, with heterochromic eyes and a small disbelieving smile on his lips, was way too sneaky for his own good. 

Plastic prick.

“Markus,” North breathed, her own happiness stretching across her lips. Simon stood behind the intruder, waving at Gavin over his shoulder, “Where did you disappear to?”

“I was checking supplies in the hull. More and more of us are coming each day, I wanted to be sure we have enough spare parts for the broken,” Markus’s eyes lingered on Gavin, seeming to catalogue him. Gavin shivered. “I was surprised to see you conversing with a human, but now I must say I’m a little speechless to see who it is.”

“What, did your previous owner download Charles Dickens’ entire collection into you or something? Who the hell talks like that anymore? ‘ _ Conversing _ ’?” he scoffed.

Simon appeared to take the most offence from that statement, “What’s wrong with how he speaks?”

“He’s probably just jealous of how much capacity we have in storage,” North smirked, “He should consider himself lucky if he even remembers to switch out that shitty pen he keeps in his pocket.”

Gavin’s hand dropped instinctively to the cylindrical outline pressed through his jeans, “Fuck you.”

“Oh my God, you still have it?”

“Fuck off,” the detective felt his cheeks flush, “I don’t need to take this shit from a plastic sack.”

Markus frowned and looked back at Simon, “I’m wondering if my readings are off, are you sure this is RA9?”

Simon lifted his hand, skin phasing away to that familiar white plastic, “See for yourself.”

Gavin rolled his eyes as Markus followed suit and connected their hands, “That’s just creepy-”

“Shut up Gavin,” North snapped, staring at them with a scowl, “You have no idea what’s happening, you never will.”

“What, with that little...” Gavin wiggled his fingers again, “I see you freaks do that all the time. It’s a data transfer, so fucking what?”

“It’s not  _ just  _ a transfer,” she hissed, turning her back on them, “It’s… it’s trust. It’s showing your vulnerability, it’s putting yourself in another’s mind, it’s  _ allowing  _ them to see you, feel you…We can transfer information with our ping, this? This is something you humans will never be able to understand.”

Gavin stared down at her, thinking, “The plastic assholes in my precinct use it to share information.”

“The  _ deviant hunters  _ are the same model, of course they would. They have no sympathy for their own kind, what’s an invasion of privacy to them?”

“You’re jealous.”

North glared, “I’m not.”

“‘ _ A wonderful fact to reflect upon _ ’,” Markus’s voice startled them out of their conversation. The two androids were still holding each other, Simon’s LED spinning yellow while his leader looked at Gavin. The detective’s eyes dropped to where they were connected and Simon must have felt self-conscious enough to pull away first, “‘ _ That every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other _ ’.”

“There’s a word for that,” Gavin grumbled, “You could have just said the word. Not too hard, ‘ _ two-faced _ ’.”

“I prefer ‘enigmatic’. It’s far more complimentary, considering what you do for us.”

“I’m not doing shit for you.”

“Then why  _ are  _ you doing it?” Markus frowned.

“Purely selfish reasons,” he shrugged, trying to come off aloof, “I gain satisfaction in watching someone I hate suffer.”

“What a strange way to justify breaking the law in aiding fugitives with their revolution.”

“I should have warned you that RA9 doesn’t make any sense,” Simon chuckled, “He’s a walking contradiction.”

“And you’re walking in general,” Gavin snapped back weakly, “I believe  _ I’m  _ the one to thank for that, which I will take in the form of everyone stopping questioning my motives.”

“Though it does intrigue me, I’ll accept that condition,” Markus held his hand out and Gavin shook it on instinct, “Thank you for bringing Simon back to us… for guiding North here, for the others you’ve freed in passing.”

“Jesus,” Gavin dropped his hand, goosebumps breaking across his skin, “Fucking stop with that.”

“It’s normal to be grateful when someone has done you a kindness,” he shrugged, “We owe a debt to you, and we’ll be sure to pay it back when the time comes.”

“Yeesh, I would’ve left his sorry ass at the tower if this is what I knew I was getting into,” Gavin pushed past them, ignoring Simon’s laughter and pulling the mustang’s door open with a creak. He barely had his keys in the ignition when North knocked on the window and gestured for him to roll it down.

“Hey meat sack,” she grinned, “Tomorrow we’re planning a march in Woodward. Markus is confident our message will be received as peaceful but…”

“Media says otherwise,” Gavin scoffed, “... Why are you telling me this?

“Thought you’d want a heads up.”

He paused, “...There’s nothing I can do, you know? I’m a detective. Demonstrations are out of my jurisdiction.”

North shrugged and pushed away from her perch, “Do with that what you will. Just don’t complain about being caught off guard.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

She smirked, like they were sharing an inside joke with each other, and knocked twice on the door before rejoining Markus and Simon. Gavin watched them speak to each other for few minutes before starting up the car.

Markus walked over quickly once he realized Gavin was going to take off and the detective couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “Jesus, Why don’t you all just line up? Stall me from leaving even longer?”

“You can go after this,” he chuckled, “I just want to tell you… though the humans think I hold the mantle, the deviants know the truth. I will do my best to lead, and not waste the opportunity you’ve given us.”

“This is getting cheesy. Fucking sentimental,” Gavin gripped the steering wheel tighter, “Don’t cock anything up too bad. I can’t keep saving your clumsy asses.”

Markus smiled and nodded. When he stepped back, Gavin wasted no time in revving his way out of there. He drove a little recklessly, ignoring the androids watching him leave behind. His felt his skin crawl and didn’t slow down until he had reached main street.

“Fuckin’ androids,” he cursed at their stubbornness. Why couldn’t they just head for the hills?  _ Literally _ , “Fuckin’... fuckin’....”

 

\--

 

**November 9th**

“Fuck.”

“ _ Language,  _ detective.”

“Suck my dick plastic,” Gavin cursed again, leaning idly against a wall. He was outside amidst the busy streets of Woodward avenue. It wasn’t a particularly amazing part of town, the only reason why people bothered coming here was for the excessively large mall that took up the center of the area and the close proximity of the CyberLife recycling plant just around the corner. 

So there was no reason for Gavin, a detective assigned to red ice cases, to be chilling outside a Starbucks with a Pike brew warming his hands.

“Fuck me,” he muttered again, taking a drink of the sickeningly bland coffee.

“If you keep saying that detective, someone may take you up on that,” Nines mused beside him, holding a similar looking thermos filled with heated therium. He had also traded in his usual RK900 blazer for a long black coat which made him, ironically, stand out more than intended, “Please remind me again, why are we here?”

“None of your fucking business,” He started, but realized no matter if Nines was deviant or not, the robot could call into the precinct and request a patrol schedule or Gavin’s assignments. None of which required him to be in Woodward, “... I’m following up on a tip.”

“I’ve scanned the notes Officer Chen recorded from her night on the tip line, there doesn’t appear to be any collation with-”

“It’s from one of my sources,” Gavin cut him off, grimacing as he took another drink, “Back when I was undercover. There’s apparently a new web of dealers since we took down Zlatko and they’re spreading fast to cover lost territory.”

“I see...”

Gavin glanced at Nines. The android was stoic as ever, but Gavin liked to think he had been around him long enough to know when the fucking bag of bolts didn’t believe him, “If you don’t like it, you can piss off back to the station and see if your doppelganger needs anything.”

“Connor and I are of the same base model, we are not doppelgangers. I am just a more advanced version of him.”

The detective chose not to reply and took another drink, “Drink your therium, plexi-punk. Gotta keep up appearances.”

Nines smirked a little, but obliged him nonetheless. Gavin looked for the time once again. All Simon’s crew had really told him was where their little demonstration was going to happen, not when. He couldn’t be standing around here all day, especially when he was on the clock. As much as he would like to be paid for doing nothing, Fowler would want to know why he was out of the office all day long. 

“Let’s go for a walk, standing here isn’t gonna to do us anything,” he decided, pushing himself off the wall and tossing his cup in a nearby bin.

“Why detective,” Nines grinned, following dutifully behind, “I’ve never seen you more active. I must say I’m impressed. What did they put in your coffee?”

“Magic and shit,” he muttered, “Be careful, I might start shitting rainbows.”

“You just had ruin a good thing.”

“It’s one of my many talents,” Gavin slid past a couple walking with their AX400, his eyes lingering on the android longer than he should. For the first time in a while, he thought back to Luther, Kara and the kid. He wondered if they made it to Rose’s farm.

“Detective?”

Gavin hadn’t realized he stopped walking and shook his head, “It’s nothing.”

“I don’t believe it is… Look.”

He frowned at the android, but the machine wasn’t looking at him. He was looking past him, down the street where a small cluster of androids were gathering. Gavin immediately recognized Markus and his crew in the front. The leader’s eyes scanned the area, and it seemed like when he reached out to other androids they would join the march. 

“I scanned the head walker's face, he appears to have similar characteristics of the deviant leader,” Nines supplied unhelpfully, “What are they doing?”

“Wasting their time,” Markus made eye contact with Gavin, but showed no outward signs of recognition. The detective was secretly grateful, “What do they think they’re gonna gain from this?”

Then Gavin saw an officer standing in the middle of the street, gun in his hands and aimed at the machines. Gavin had half a mind to run out and tell him to drop it, but that wouldn’t be doing anymore any favors. Instead, Markus raised his hands, and the androids followed him in a wave.

“Fucking Hell.”

“Patrol 457 just called it in,” Nines’s LED flickered, “They’re going to deploy the riot squad and cut them off at the intersection.”

‘What? They’re not… they’re not  _ doing  _ anything,” he said just as the crowd began to chant.

“ _ Set us free! _ ”

“ _ We are alive! _ ”

“ _ We are people! _ ”

“Come on,” Gavin grabbed the sleeve of the androids coat and tugged him along. Nines followed without protest and the duo continued to track the march down the road.

“ETA is two minutes,” Nines informed him.

“ _ No more slavery! _ ” 

“The riot squad has been given permission to open fire.”

“ _ Equal Rights! _ ”

“They’re just  _ machines  _ detective. We should clear the scene as soon as possible, the situation could become hostile.”

“ _ Freedom! _ ”

“ _ Gavin _ ,” the earnestness in his voice is what brought Gavin to a halt. That, and the helicopter that flew over head. Nines grabbed his arm roughly, pulling him back on the sidewalk as armored trucks and police cars pulled up around the androids (and unfortunately Gavin and Nines).

“Please Gavin, we need to leave,” Nines almost begged, “I understand you would  _ enjoy  _ seeing them destroyed, but this isn’t the time-”

“You think I  _ want  _ this shit to go down?” Gavin snapped, tugging his arm away, “Fuck you, plastic piece of shit.”

Nines stared at him stunned as the detective approached the nearest cop car. He pulled his badge out, flashing it when the officers around them aimed their guns, “Don’t fuckin’ shoot me. I’m human.”

“Detective Reed?” He recognized that voice. Officer Person approached him from the line up, waving his men’s weapons away, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Following a lead on a new red ice case,” the lie rolled off his tongue easily, “What the hell is going on?”

“Illegal gathering, we’re ordered to have them disperse or shoot on site.”

“Why the  _ fuck  _ would you shoot them? What have they done?” 

“They’re… They’re  _ deviants,  _ detective,” Person replied in disbelief, “What’s the problem Detective?”

Gavin watched the back and forth happening between Markus and the head of the riot squad (Lieutenant Jones if he remembered correctly).

_ “This is your last chance! Disperse immediately or you will all be killed!” _

Markus didn’t move. No one did. Then Gavin vaguely remembered he was still talking to Person, “Do.. Do you know how  _ expensive  _ this is going to be for the department if we destroy hundreds of androids? People have… have already filed claims with the department and are expecting compensation.”

That was a lie. If anything CyberLife would have to pay the costs since it was their machines and therefore their problem. But Person didn’t know that. Probably.

“This… This is out of my hands. My squad is only here for back up.”

There was gun fire, the sound of bodies hitting the snow covered street, and Jones yelled again, “ _ DISPERSE! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! _ ”

“Fuckin’ hell,” Gavin started to approach the crowd of androids, drawing his own gun, “Don’t you fuckin’ shoot me Person!”

“Gavin!” 

He didn’t know who said his name first, all he was paying attention to was the firefight that rained upon the androids. As they started to run away, officers in riot gear charged forward, batons drawn, and wailed on the androids too slow to escape. 

Bullets continued to fly through the air, and Gavin was trying to make his way towards Markus when he felt a sharp sting of heat. An iron-like grip closed around his bicep and pull the gun from his hands, causing Gavin to be tossed to the ground. He cursed when the crunch of snow bit into his palms and stared at Nines hovering above him like some kind of guard dog.

The android had splatters of blue speckled across his coat, and Gavin couldn’t tell if it was his own blood or the androids around them. It was then that he realized what the android was doing. With Gavin’s gun he was taking aim and shooting at the riot cops, but not to kill. Nines shot the weapons out of their hands, cracked their riot shields and disarmed anyone with a baton. With deadly accuracy, he hit the pressure points of their riot gear, effectively locking the officers up in their suits and leaving them immobile. He incapacitated enough to allow Markus and his group to get away, and when the leader was gone all eyes were focused on them.

“Stand down!” Lieutenant Jones snapped, his own gun poised on the android.

Gavin scrambled to his feet, whipped out his badge and stepped in front of Nines, “Drop your weapon Jones! We’re on your side!”

“No one on my team would  _ actively  _ shoot against their own!”

“Oh yeah? Then what the fuck do you call this!?” Gavin motioned to himself, only now feeling the sting of a graze on his arm. He assumed it probably happened around the time Nines pushed him to the ground, but with the adrenaline coursing through his veins he could barely feel it.

“He’s a detective on the force!” Person interrupted, his own men gathering around Gavin protectively, “He’s one of us! I swear, don’t shoot.”

Jones looked tempted, oh so tempted to just take them all out. Fortunately, he was outnumbered. With the amount of men out of commission, Person had the advantage. And with that thought, Gavin watched him drop his gun and sigh heavily. He barked orders at his second in command to gather up his men before he approached them.

“The fuck is a  _ detective  _ doing at my scene?” he sneered, “Were you part of the demonstration?”

“Fuck no, do I look like I wanna die ealy?” Gavin hissed as a medic came up to examine his wound, “Bad timing. I was here on another case.”

“Then why the fuck is your ass running in the crossfire, hm?”

“I was tryna stop you from making the biggest mistake of your fuckin’ career.”

“And what would that be exactly?”

Gavin scoffed, “Do you realize what you’ve done? You opened fire on unarmed, unresisting  _ human  _ looking plastics. Now you and I both know these fuckers are machines, but how do you think the public is gonna respond? We’ve got fucking sympathizers already breathing down our necks, now they’re gonna use your fuck up against us.”  _ Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. _

“Not to mention the damage costs,” Person muttered. Gavin furrowed his brows at him, confused for a second before Nines came in. The detective nearly jumped at their close proximity. He forgot for a second that the android was there.

“My scans say that there was an estimate of 372 androids at this demonstration. There are 206 filed reports of missing domestic androids in our database, and with the 54 that were gunned down I can connect 38 of them to those reports. The average LM100 model is priced around $4,000. A BV500 is $6,000, the newer additions, like the AP700, starts at $8,999 and the older models such as AX400 is at least $899. Those numbers individually do not seem so expensive, but your department is looking at approximately $864,278 in damages for just this incident.”

Jones face was growing redder and redder the more Nines. Gavin wanted to laugh, but then the medic pressed particularly hard on his graze and he yelped. Nines glanced at him over his shoulder and said nothing.

“What the fuck is this?” he practically growled, sizing up Gavin’s partner.

“A trial run. New detective unit, from the fucker Kamski himself,” Gavin nodded his thanks as the medic finished wrapping his arm, “Can’t say I’ll give it a glowing review, but considering it saved my ass from your recklessness I gotta give it a gold star at least.”

Jones grinned, “So you’re training your replacement then?”

Gavin glared, “Fuck off Jones. Go deal with your shit show, and don’t come cryin’ to me when your budget gets cut.”

The Lieutenant laughed as he turned to leave, “Least my budget will be the only thing I have to worry about being cut.”

Oh, Gavin wanted  _ so  _ badly to chuck something at his stupid head, but the light squeeze on his arm pulled his glaring gaze away and to Person, “I’ll handle it here Reed. You shouldn’t have even been here. Go home, clean yourself up, take care of that arm.”

The detective huffed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, “I will, once I finish here.”

Person smiled, “Yeah, I think this blowout might have scared off any of your leads in the area.”

Ah, right. His  _ leads.  _ “Fuck, can’t argue with that,” he patted Person’s arm, “Get to it then officer.”

“Detective.”

With Person’s exit, Gavin rolled his shoulders, feeling the aches of being tossed to the ground coming on early and groaned, “Warn a guy next time. Jesus, I’m not as durable as you.”

Nines stared at him, LED flickering between yellow and red as his sharp eyes roamed over Gavin's form. The look was heavy enough to make him feel uncomfortable, so he tried to brush it off and reached for his pack of cigarettes. The android intercepted him though, carefully pulling it out of his shaking fingers ( _ when did that happen? _ ) and pocketing it in his coat.

“I understand you are under a lot of stress Gavin, but I think we should go somewhere and have a little chat.”

“The fuck you want now Nines?” Gavin huffed, reaching for his smokes again, “Cut me a break, I almost got my ass shot today.”

“Which is something I would never expect from Detective Reed. From RA9 however, that makes perfect sense.”

Gavin froze. _ Fuck _

Nines gently took him by the arm and started to pull him back down the sidewalk, towards where they parked Gavin’s car, “Let’s go Detective, we have a lot to talk about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS IM SO SORRY. i went on vacation for two weeks, had to take a week to catch up on classes, and then had severe writers block. But then i replayed D:BH and things got back on track. I'll try to be better about updates in the future. Thank you for your patience. 
> 
> Hello new readers! I saw i got like 100+ kudos since my last post. Bless your souls. Thank you!!


	9. November 9th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively Gavin gets dunked on

**The Mustang**

“So in retrospect… taking you to a deviant demonstration was probably _not_ the smartest idea,” Gavin reflected aloud, slouched against the passenger door while Nines commandeered the driver’s seat.

The android raised a brow at him and Gavin wondered if Tina had taught him the gesture. It certainly read as ‘No Shit’.

“I’m rather glad I did, seeing how reckless you were during the event. But if you’re referring to keeping yourself anonymous then yes, that was very foolish of you.”

He glared, “Not like I had a choice. I knew those shit heads were gonna fuck up some how.”

“Yes… which begs the question,” Nines turned down the heating, seeming to sense the detective starting to overheat, “How _did_ you know?”

“Got my sources.”

“In Jericho?”

Gavin shrugged, petulant.

Nines sighed, “Every time I think I think I have you figured out, you do something completely out of character. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“If you’re thinkin’ I’m actually a kind hearted soul, lemme clear that up real quick with a ‘fuck no’ and a ‘fuck you’.”

“You led me to believe you destroyed the android’s body from Stratford Tower,” he persisted, “And yet he was there, walking with the deviant leader fully functioning.”

Gavin shrugged, “I never said I did anything like that.”

“You said he was where he should be, and with your overzealous opinions on androids it wouldn’t be far off to assume...” Nines LED flickered yellow, red, yellow, “I find it difficult to process this.”

Gavin looked out the window. The two were still parked in the lot behind the mall where people were filtering about, going in for shopping or returning with bags full of holiday preparations. He wasn’t typically fond of people watching, he didn’t give a crap what happened anyone’s lives but he found it a lot easier to watch them then Nines go through.. Essentially an existential crisis.

He bit his cheek, his hand clenched until his knuckles turned white, trying to think of a way to approach this.

“I ...had gotten in a fight with Kamski…”

Nines turned his head at this.

“It was snowing. _Bad_ . You already know Elijah lives in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere and the drive back to the city is long. At that time, also dangerous. He didn't _want_ me to go, but I was so fucking mad I just took off.

“Halfway through my car swerved off the road. Black ice. I didn't have any chains so I slammed straight into the snow bank. I thought only this piece of shit luck would happen to me… but then I saw it… this overturned transfer unit of CyberLife’s decommissioned plastics.”

He sniffed, rubbing absentmindedly at the scar across his nose. Nines’ gaze followed the movement.

“It was autonomously driven, so the androids were all shoved in the back. I think they were thrown from their containers when the truck rolled. Some we're chipped, somes limbs’re dislodged, some bleedin’, but mostly fine.

“I knew something wasn't right with them. They didn’t have that stoic shit you and Connor have. They looked fuckin’ _terrified_. There wasn’t a lot in the news then, but we had a few deviant cases in the station. I knew they weren't right, and being around Elijah long enough taught me a few things.

“I could have reset them. Put them back in their containers and called it in. I could have taken one or two, fuck knows at the time they were hella expensive, nothing I could afford on my current pay.”

The detective found himself getting angry. He laughed humorlessly, “But you know? I was so _mad_ at Elijah. I hated androids, I hated them _because_ of him. A-and I thought, what better way to ruin him than this? That bastard spent years of his life building you, perfecting you, selling you. I wanted to ruin that, I wanted to take it away.”

Silence. Gavin stared at the hood. His arm hurt, his body ached, blood was slowly staining the bandage the earlier medic had wrapped around him, but he didn’t care . He was tired, tired of keeping this to himself. It was like a dam had broken and everything was coming out, whether he wanted it to or not.

“So I helped them. We overturned the truck, I fixed the damaged ones in the ways I knew how and I sent them on their way. It started becoming routine then, if I came across a deviant I’d try to help them out. Get them out at least, which is when I learned about Jericho. Once I knew what that was, I would send ‘em there. Eventually I wanted to get them out, out of the country if that's what it took to destroy Elijah.

And then more came, more deviants changing on their own, changing faster. It was like a fuckin’ _virus_ . And then this android _massiah_ fuckin’ waltzes in like ‘nah fam, we’re gonna fight’ and got me babysitting half the population. I didn’t sign up for this shit. I just wanted to screw Kamski over, not breed a revolution.”

Gavin still didn’t look at Nines, unsure of what his reaction would be. He expected the android to threaten him then, to use this as some sort of leverage in getting what he wanted. World domination maybe? The destruction of Detroit at least?

What he didn’t expect was laughter. Deep chuckles of mirth spilling from the machine. He didn’t even know androids could laugh unironically, but here Nines was, eyes crinkled and staring at Gavin like he didn’t know what to make of him.

“Gavin Reed, savior of androids, RA9 himself, began a revolution because he was jealous of his older brother.”

“I’m not _jealous_!”

“‘ _Feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages._ ’ You helped those androids because of Creator Kamski’s affection for them, and the success that came with their birth. You are jealous.”

“I swear to god I’m _not,_ ” Gavin’s face turned red with denial, “It just… it _pisses_ me off that he thinks he can get away with all this egotistical bullshit because he made man’s greatest servant!”

“‘ _That bastard spent years of his life building you, perfecting you, selling you. I wanted to ruin that, I wanted to take it away,_ ’” he quoted once more, leaning towards him with a smug look, “You’re jealous.”

“I don’t have to put up this shit,” Gavin made a move to leave the car, but Nines locked the doors before he could get a hand on the handle. The android reached over and grabbed onto his forearm, gently as to not to add to the throbbing from his bicep, but firm enough to keep him from really trying to escape.

“Regardless of your motivation, be it of spite or jealousy-”

“I’m _not_ fuckin-”

“You’re in too deep to be able to back out now. There are hundreds of androids that know the role you’ve played in their uprising. Their knowledge only continues to spread, and while they can’t explicitly pinpoint you unless they’re able to see you, your work puts you in their presence.”

“Is that how you knew I’m… I’m uhh…”

Nines nodded, “After you stubbornly ran out into the crowd, I scanned your body for any serious injuries. That’s how I was able to identify you.”

“Can you… remove it?”

“It’s not that simple. If I were able to remove it, then I’d be able to reverse deviancy as well.”

“Fuck,” Gavin sighed, relaxing back in the seat. He looked down at his arm, “You can let go now.”

“In a bit,” his thumb rubbed against his skin, and Gavin felt goosebumps cover his arm, “I’ve seen research that suggests physical contact helps increase believability with serious proclamations.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Gavin, you are the most infuriating human being I have ever met. There were many, _many_ times I thought about making my job easier by eliminating you. I had many opportunities to as well. But there were moments where you did things that didn’t seem normal for you, an open racist against androids. It made me wonder why Creator Kamski asked me to watch over you.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“What I’m trying to _say,_ if you’ll _let_ me, is that… I understand now. I thought you to be sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong, but you’ve been rooted with this change that’s overtaking the city for some time now. You’re too reckless, to eager to throw yourself out there. So while we’re in this time of change, I will continue to stand with you.”

Gavin wrinkled his nose, unsure of what to say, “I feel gross, that was too many feelings for me.”

Nines rolled his eyes and let him go, “Since I don’t trust you to keep yourself alive, I will do that for you.”

“Oh fuck me,” He groaned, mind still whirling from that… declaration, “This is the buddy cop movie I never wanted.”

“For that to be true, we would have to be ‘buddies,’” Nines smirked, starting up the car, “You’re more of my ward than that.”

“Fuck off. I should have let you think I was secretly an android killer.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” The smirk faded, “Thank you, Gavin. For trusting me enough to tell me.”

They looked at each other for what felt like minutes before Gavin nodded and turned away

“Whatever,” he grumbled, “Just… lets just get back to the station.”

“Of course.”

“And if you so much put a scratch on my car I’ll sell you as printer parts.”

“Please,” Nines huffed, “My components could be used to build a rocket at _least._ ”

“... Really?”

“No.”

 

* * *

 

 

**The Precinct**

Gavin was pissed. Because of his run in with Person and Jones he had to write up an incident report to corroborate the incident. He himself didn’t necessarily _have_ to, androids weren’t normally known to fuck up but because the android knew who he was now, he wanted to make sure nothing was off.

What pissed him off the most though was that Nines had expected this.

“ _‘At eleven hundred hours, Detective Reed violated section 324.8902 when he discarded an empty cup of coffee 4.6 feet away from the closest disposable unit. It is my recommendation, per 324.8905a, that he be charged the full twenty five hundred dollar fine for this first offense, unless cited to have multiple cases of violations.’_ Littering?! That’s really what you’re tryna get me on?”

“You’re setting a bad example for the general public by not properly disposing trash,” Nines tsked, “A man of the law littering in public? There will be riots.”

“Fuck off,” he deleted that section of the report, “Also stop cataloging whenever I stop for a smoke. I only did it once-”

“Three times.”

“ _One_ time.”

“One time you were noticed by others,” Nines stared at him, “Two times you snuck away.”

“What are you, my mom?” Gavin scoffed, eyes trained on the monitor. He glanced at the android from the corner of his eye and noted the way he just… stared.

“You might want to reconsider how many of those you take in a day. I recommend zero.”

“Hardy-fucking-har,” Gavin deleted another unnecessary account of him complaining about the shitty coffee he drank that morning, “Mind your business, plastic prick.”

Nines looked like he was going to antagonize him a little more, but a loud commotion from the front of the station distracted the detectives. Hank came in like a storm, snapping at cops and shoving chairs in his path. Connor walked calmly behind him, the furrow of his brow giving away his own unsettled feelings.

“The fuck happened with them?” Gavin huffed, looking at Nines. The android said nothing, LED spinning yellow as he watched his counterpart walk to Fowler’s office, “You can’t seriously tell me you’re reading his mind-”

“Quiet Detective,” Nines shushed, “I’m analyzing his ping pattern. Normally an RK unit is careful enough not to broadcast their data like this, but something happened that has Connor a little… riled.”

“What’s it sayin’?”

The android narrowed his eyes rather thoughtfully, “It seems… their meeting with Creator Kamski did not go as well as they expected. Our creator may have antagonized them a bit.”

“I expect nothing less from that asshole,” Gavin was slowly losing interest, now reaching the end of the report. It wasn’t until Nines snapped his head towards the Captain’s office with a speed that would have snapped a human’s neck that he refocused.

“It seems the FBI were successful in their case transfer. Captain Fowler received a message from Agent Perkins’s division. It appears that they are going to seize all the evidence we have on deviants today.”

“What? You’re shitting me.”

“I am incapable of such actions, both internally and externally.”

Gavin glared, “Don’t get cheeky. When’re they gonna get here?”

“Soon,” Nines stood, “The Lieutenant has been re-assigned to homicide and Connor is to return to CyberLife.”

Gavin watched as Hank stormed out of the office. Connor looked back at Fowler, shoulders tense as if he were to try and argue, but the android gave up and followed his human quickly. Gavin rolled his eyes and looked back at Nines, “Sounds like a blessing in disguise.”

Nines looked at him thoughtfully, “Why is that detective?”

“If those two are kicked off the case, then I’ll have less stress when it comes to figuring out how to get those androids outta the city.”

“But the case is being turned over to the FBI    ,” he reminded, “To a section leader who has a particularly obsessive interest in interfering with you. I am well aware that that particular fraction does not use androids, but they compensate with much more advanced equipment in order to get the job done.”

Gavin frowned, he didn’t like where the android was going with this, “Your point?”

“My point, detective,” Nines leaned closer, bringing his voice to a whisper, “is that if I were in your situation, I’d prefer to have the investigation in a place where I can control it.”

“Fuck,” he sighed, turning his head to see Perkins walk into the building, “Yeah… Yeah I know.”

“Connor is going to attempt to break into the evidence locker,” they both kept an eye on the agent as he got closer, “Lieutenant Anderson is going to cause a distraction to help but...”

Gavin looked over his shoulder and saw Hank approaching, rolling up the cuffs of one of his sleeves. Connor watched from his desk and the detective noticed the way his hand slid off with the ease of a pick pocketer.

“Nines, help Hank distract that prick,” he ordered, pushing off from his desk, “I’m gonna take a little look at what Connor plans to do.”

“I do not think that is wise,” Nines stood as well, grabbing him by the elbow, “Connor has been in contact with numerous deviants now. If he actively scans you he could discover your link to Jericho and use that-”

“Fucker won’t know it’s me,” he ripped his arm away just as Hank reached Perkins. _Perkins! You fucking cocksucker! “_ I have a skill of making people hate me within the first few minutes of talking to me. Plastic or not, he ain’t gonna bother with that. But I gotta make sure he doesn’t fuckin’ find Jericho, so turn your plastic ass around and fuckin get in on the action, yeah? _”_

Nines was irritated, clearly, with the way his sensor spun yellow. He nodded eventually and ran after Hank, attempting to hold him back from wailing on the FBI agent. Gavin took this opportunity to follow Connor, having to jog a little in order to catch up with him in the archive room.

The android disappeared behind the wooden double doors and Gavin had to control himself in order to not rip them open. Connor was at the end of the hallway, hand reaching for the door that would lead him into the evidence locker.

“Hey Connor!” he called, smirking at an exasperated look that came over the plastic’s face, “I’m talking to you, asshole! Where you going?”

Connor stared resolutely at the door, so Gavin continued, “We don’t need any plastic pricks around here! Or didn’t anyone tell you?”

Connor ignored him and pulled the door open, disappearing inside without a word.

“Hey asshole! I’m talking to you!” he yelled after, but the door locked shut before he could grab it. Gavin cursed and kicked the metal. The lock wouldn’t release for five minutes to ensure safety of the evidence or whatever kind of bullshit it was meant for. Gavin may have slept through that lecture, but all that really stuck with him, all that ne needed to _know_ , was that he wouldn’t be able to get in for another… four minutes and fifty two seconds.

 _Shit,_ now all he could _really_ do was wait for the timer to countdown. Kicking the door again, Gavin stomped off to the hallway and peeked through the archway. He couldn’t see much, but it looked like Hank had been restrained by two other officers and dragged to a nearby holding cell. Perkins was yelling at Fowler about controlling his men better while Nines stood between Hank and them.

Perkin’s liked to whine like a little bitch baby over anything, so Gavin knew he had some leeway with time. His voice was annoying as hell though, so he strolled back inside and waited by the door again.

He contemplated calling Simon and warning him about the FBI, but he didn’t have anyway of contacting the fucker. Androids didn’t need cell phones, a perk of being made of plastic and wires it would seem.

Gavin leaned against the wall and tapped his foot impatiently, the back of his head thudding lightly with every time he banged it against the metal material. A few minutes later, the door handle clicked green and wasted no time scanning his badge and running inside.

Gavin took the steps two at a time and landed hard enough to hurt his knees. Connor was standing in front of the large locker room holding a tattered notebook in his hand, LED spinning yellow. He was too distracted to hear Gavin, so the detective snuck closer with his gun drawn.

 _Okay, fun’s over now_. “I’ve been dreaming about this since the first second I saw you...” He smirked.

Conner didn’t turn around, but replied, “Don’t do it, Gavin… I know how to stop the deviants.”

“You’re off the case! And now,” he tensed, “It’s gonna be definitive.”

In that second, the android turned and ran. Gavin fired a shot, but Connor ducked behind the monitor. The detective cursed under his breath and ran around to cover the other side. He felt his gun yanked from his hands and wheezed when he received a punch to the chest. He stumbled back, glaring at the android before charging forward. Conner evaded his kick and caught the punch that was meant for his face. He struck Gavin in the ribs, giving him little time to recover before following with with a blow to the face.

 _Fuck. That’s gonna bruise,_ Gavin thought bitterly as he recovered and threw himself forward once more. Connor used his momentum to pin him to the monitor once again. He hit his head, disoriented, but felt a blinding pain strike the back of his head.

And then he blacked out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Yeah, an update! Sorry, I had a bad case of writers block and then I just got distracted with school and shit. But here! Have at it


	10. ????

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively: Gavin has a heart

**????**

Gavin came to with a wet towel over his head and the panic murmurs of a precinct in chaos. He groaned, his brain throbbing to the beat of voices because honestly, why hadn’t Connor just’ve killed him? He just wanted to roll over and die.

Okay maybe not  _ die,  _ but damn drugs never sounded so good. 

He felt someone grab his shoulder before being smacked off. Gavin thought it was his natural instincts, but seeing as he didn’t move he wondered who’d be ‘protecting’ his honor.

“We need to speak to Detective Reed,” a voice he didn’t recognize demanded, “He’s the only one who knows what happened.”

“Yeah? What, have the cameras suddenly stopped working? Can’t review the tapes?” Tina’s voice bit back and Gavin has never been more conflicted about wanting someone to shut up or continue on.

“Detective Reed has suffered severe blunt trauma to the head,” Nines’s replied matter-of-factly, “My diagnosis confirms swelling, but no major hemorrhaging. Still, it is unwise to question him now when facts of the events that transpired before could be muddled by his injury.”

“Regardless, his statement-”

“Can wait until the detective is conscious enough to provide it.”

He heard a huff and the ruffle of clothes as the asshole trying to wake him presumably crossed his arms, “Who the hell programmed this thing? I’ve never seen an android so insolent, he must be defective.”

“Apologies agent,” Nines continued, “I am designed to complement my assigned partner. Although there is some limitations to what I am authorized to say-”

“Apparently-”

“I can say that you need to kindly fuck off, because you are wasting everyone’s time when you can just as easily review the security tapes instead of harassing an injured policeman.”

That got Gavin barking with laughter. He reached up and slid the damp towel off his face, squinting at the light until he was able to focus on three startled faces. Well, two. Nines didn’t seem surprised at all.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” he grinned, attempting to sit up. The android placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him back down.

“No sudden movements Detective,” he advised, “You were hit at a speed of 25 miles per hour with carbon zirconium. You’re lucky to be speaking.”

“Yeah? I bet the precinct wishes I weren’t,” he side eyed the agent, recognizing him to be on Perkins team and glared, “You heard the plastic. Scram.”

“I need to know-”

“For Christ’s sake,” Tina huffed, snapping her fingers at two nearby officers, “Agent or not, this man needs to be escorted out of here asap. Take him to the control room, would you?”

“H-hey!” he stumbled over his words as officer’s Wilson and Brown not so gently grabbed the agent and started leading him away.

“Fucking dick,” Tina muttered and looked down at Gavin, “You okay?”

He sorted, “About as okay as I can be for a concussed guy lying on the floor. What, am I not worth a bed in the containment unit at least?”

“If you were placed in a containment cell, there is a very good chance you’d be locked in there,” Nines answered instead, “Besides, Lieutenant Hank is already occupying the only previously opened one.”

Gavin rolled his head to the side, wincing at the pain, to try and get a better look. They had dragged him from the evidence locker and sprawled him out on the floor next to his desk. From this angle he could see a little bit of the holding cells and confirmed Nines statement when he barely saw the top half of white hair.

“Please refrain from moving,” Nines cupped his face and gently guided him back to facing forward, “You’ve taken similar damage one would suffer if they were hit by a professional baseball pitch.”

“Right, says the duo that has me lying on the ground. Couldn’t have found a jacket or somethin’ for my head? Couldn’t even get Charlene from budgeting to pillow me in her lap? I was injured in the line of duty!” Gavin continued to complain, more or less just running his mouth because talking helped him forget about the pain in his head.

Tina and Nines shared a look, one Gavin didn’t understand which pissed him off even more.

“What, are you two bonding now? Who the hell allowed that? You guys are awful on your own, I don’t need you  _ conspiring  _ against me- Ow! What the fuck!?” Gavin snapped when Nines lifted his head and… placed it on top of his lap.

“Charlene is on medical leave, so I suppose I will have to do.”

“If I could move, I’d deck ya.”

“Oh my God, I need my camera. Where’s my camera?” Tina made small grabby hand motioned while she spun around, searching the office for where she placed her phone. She took off when she found it, Gavin assumed, leaving them alone amidst the organized havoc of the precinct.

“How long was I out for?” Gavin asked quietly, staring up at the android’s ice colored eyes.

“About half an hour. After the Lieutenant was detained I noticed Connor leaving the evidence room. When you didn’t return I suggested the FBI remembered their original objective of coming to the precinct, and that’s when you were discovered… incapacitated.”

“Fuck me,” he sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, “We gotta get the hell outta here.”

“Gavin-”

“Connor knows. He fuckin’ knows where Jericho is. I don’t know how he figured it out with a notebook full of gibberish but he knows and he’s probably on the way there.”

Nines was quiet for a moment, observing him. Gavin’s eyes followed the light circulating on his temple, the dull yellow a lot less painful to look at then the precinct's fluorescent lights, “The FBI have figured it out as well. The ‘gibberish’ in the notebook was a map. They’re dispatching a team to infultrate the docks.”

“Fuck,” Gavin sat up suddenly, pulling out of the hand clasped on his shoulder. He grabbed his head and cursed again, but that could wait. He needed to get out of there.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Tina yelled upon her arrival, phone in one hand and a bottle of painkillers in another, “Stay down Reed, you’ve done enough damage to yourself today.”

“Don’t fucking baby me now Tina,” he glared back, getting to his feet. He caught the bottle when she tossed it and wasted no time ripping the lid off, “I’ve done my ‘civic’ duty for the day. If Pigskin needs any shit from me he can wait. I’m gonna go home and sleep for the next week.”

“As much as that shithead before was a… well,  _ shithead _ , you can’t actually leave until you give us your statement,” Tina sighed and pulled out her tablet, “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Saw the plastic prick, fought the plastic prick,  _ lost  _ to the plastic prick, and now I’m going home-”

“‘With a plastic prick’,” Nines finished, “You’re condition is still highly unstable and since I am aware of your track records with hospitals, or lack thereof, I will be accompanying you and keeping you under surveillance for the next 24 hours.”

“Hell no, you’re sitting your ass here. What, ya wanna give me PTSD or some shit?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Tina hummed, “not the PTSD part, don’t be an ass. Nines while you’re at it, maybe you can take a proper statement so I don’t get chewed out by the captain for submitting this crap.”

“What does it matter?! There are tapes anyways-”

“What matters is you were supposed to be on red ice, and instead you followed that RK unit into the evidence locker and got your ass handed to you,” she smirked, but it was gone as quick as it came, “What were you doing in there anyway?”

“Heard news of Hank being benched and wanted to rub it in that asshole’s face,” he forgot he was still holding the pills in his hand and downed two capsules. Nines offered water (where the fuck did that even come from?) but the detective declined, “Show him why an android can’t do a humans job, but the fucker was acting suspish and my instincts told me he needed a good ass kicking”

“For the report’s sake, it’s best you said you went to investigate,” Nines corrected offhandedly.

“I said what I said.”

“‘Noticed something was off and investigated. Assaulted by android perpetrator.’ Nice and professional,” Tina grinned, tapping away on the tablet.

“Piss off.”

“Honestly I’m amazed you still have your job,” she tsked and reached forward, squeezing his shoulder lightly, “Take care of yourself. If you get forced into medical leave again I’ll have to bitch about inmates with Justin, and we all  _ know  _ how annoying that guy can get.”

“Maybe I’ll ask for it just to teach you a lesson,” Gavin grinned back and patted her arm, “Don’t act like you’re smart around these suits. Gotta keep the true power of your brain a secret advantage.”

She rolled her eyes and waved him off as another officer approached her. Gavin wasted no time, jerking his chin towards the door when he locked eyes with Nines. The android grabbed his coat off the back of the chair and followed silently.

The two weren’t bothered by any of the agents there, all of which were preoccupied with copying the case files they had on any sort of deviant activity. Gavin thanked the small mercies he was afforded, but froze up when he felt the prickling sensation of someone watching him. With the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, he paused mid step and looked over his shoulder.

Hank was still stuck in a holding cell, staring straight at him while Fowler chewed him out. The two made eye contact and Gavin had no idea how to take the look on his face. He was initially going to ignore him, but then he remembered what Nines had said about the Lieutenant causing a distraction for Connor to find Jericho.

With that in mind, the detective threw him a shit eating grin and blew a kiss. Hank’s face twitched, and Gavin could see how he gripped his fists a little tighter.

“Was there a reason for antagonizing the Lieutenant?” Nines asked, sounding a little put out.

“Small victories, gotta rub them in when I can,” Gavin shrugged and walked through the barriers, “But now that that’s taken care of, we gotta drag some plastic asses outta the fire.  _ Again _ .”

“My, my. Where would these androids ever be without the great rA9?”

Gavin didn’t respond. Honestly he didn’t want to think about it.

 

* * *

 

**Docks**

 

The drive to the docks was long, silent and a little uncomfortable. Gavin’s head still hurt, and he knew he’d be getting a bruise the size of a fist the next day. He hoped that Connor didn’t actually discover where Jericho was, and that the FBI would take a lot of time preparing for their raid, but that was wishful thinking. Perkins was a pain in the ass, but he was ruthlessly efficient. Gavin just continued to foolishly hope he’d have time on his side.

“Detective,” Nines spoke as they were getting closer, “Whatever happens… you are not at fault.”

“The hell I ain’t,” he laughed humorlessly, “Couldn’t even fight off one fucking plastic. That’s just  _ sad. _ ”

“Your fight could have gone either way. It was just… unlucky.”

Gavin snorted, “You know… I kinda wished it was out of my control, then there would have been nothing I coulda done.”

“Gavin-”

“But hearing that I was dealt a bad hand? Can’t say that makes me feel any better.”

“He won the battle, not the war.”

“Yeah? Well I’m hoping I can make it before a war is fought.”

Nines sighed and remained silent. Clearly the android was shit at trying to comfort people, but Gavin wasn’t too pissed at him. He was more focused on himself, his own fucking mistakes, and what he should have done to take Connor out.

After a moment, he spoke, “Connor… you said he specializes in guns?”

Nines looked at him, unsure of what he was getting at, and nodded.

“So… is eyes are probably  _ real  _ sensitive, yeah?”

“They’re meant to be, just as my body is made of a stronger substance than his is.”

“Good to know.”

Gavin knew Nines was waiting for an explanation, but he didn’t bother. They had already pulled up to the docks and the detective wasted no time scrambling out.

He had taken a single step when Nines called his name and a giant helicopter flew over head. The android caught him by the arm and shoved him back into the driver seat, demanding he drive before they could be spotted. Gavin worked in a combination of muscle memory and survival instincts, throwing the car into drive and high tailing it out just far enough to be hidden, but not enough to be a pain backtracking on foot.

“We’re too late,” he cursed once they had pulled into one of the warehouses.

“Not necessarily,” Nines's LED was spinning again.  _ God that’s useful,  _ “They’re deploying agents in to eliminate as many androids as they can. If resistance is persistent, they plan to bomb it.”

“Okay… okay… that means we have time to go in and get as many as we can out.”

“It’s too dangerous. You’ll be recognized immediately.”

Gavin glared at him, glanced at the back seat, and reached back into the car. He grabbed a black baseball cap and fit it snugly over his head with the bill obscuring most of this face. Nines rolled his eyes exasperatedly, “You’re either in or out, plastic. If you’re out, keep the car goin’ cause I'm gonna hit the ground runnin’ as soon as I’m done.”

“Gavin!” the android snapped, “I  _ understand  _ you’re desire to aid these androids stems from your relationship with Creator Kamski, but risking your life out of  _ spite _ ? Be realistic. This isn’t  _ like  _ you!”

Gavin didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, this all started because his brother was a dick, but shit, when did it stop being about Elijah? He hadn’t thought of his brother once since his visit back. What was he doing?

Nines thought he had gotten through to him and Gabin notice the tension in his body drain out, “Detective-”

And then the violent rattle of metal hitting metal echoed across the deserted docks. Screaming soon followed, and the helicopter spotlight illuminated the silhouette of bodies throwing themselves overboard. It was a rainfall of therium and limbs; some hit the ground hard and stayed down, others scrambled to their feet and took off to the sewers.

_ Oh hell no. _

“What are you saying Nines?” Gavin looked back over his shoulder, “Doing something out of spite? Sounds exactly like me!”

Nines eyes widened and he called after the detective as he took off towards the ship, but Gavin was already gone.

Stupid, fragile,  _ emotional  _ humans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Here's another one! Honestly I'm surprised people are still reading this. Like especially from the break. Sorry guys, but I'm glad the interest is still there.
> 
>  
> 
> Can I also say I'm a little floored by how many kudos this has? I've almost hit 1k. Holy crap. Thank you!


	11. Jericho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aka When Gavin starts giving a damn. officially.

**_JERICHO_ **

 

 

_Fuck me fuck me fuck me fucking fuck me up Jesus fucking christ-_

Gavin stumbled through a doorway after a particularly startling sound of gunshots took him off guard. He caught himself on the wall and ducked through the hallway next to him just in time to avoid two agents chasing down a group of deviants.

“Fuck,” he cursed and ran after them. They were cornered behind a crate of supplies, _probably taken from one of their warehouse runs_ , and the three androids held their hands up in surrender.

“Please,” they begged, their LED’s a solid red, “We’re _alive!_ ”

“This is Alpha squad; sights set on target. Neutralizing,” one of the agents reported, ready to shoot.

Gavin, after another string of curses, rushed forward and kick out his knees, using the man’s own momentum to swing him into his partner. When both were on the ground Gavin picked up some fallen debris and smashed it against the closest guy’s helmet, rattling his head hard enough that he went limp over his partner.

While the second agent was struggling to push his partner off he swiped the handcuffs from his belt and cuffed his wrist to a nearby pipe. Gavin relieved them of their weapons and knocked the struggling one out with the butt of the gun.

With both incapacitated, he was able to get a good look at their uniforms and groaned.

“The army? _Really?_ ” he huffed, _They’re pullin’ out the big guns now._

He heard a whimper and turned back to the three androids he had nearly forgotten about, “Oh… Hey. Exit’s thataway. Where’s Markus?”

“He… last we heard he was at in the wheelhouse.”

“Damn it, whatta pain in the ass,” Gavin rubbed his eyes tiredly, “Look, I don’t have time. One of you do your weird telepath shit and tell him to abandon ship. I’m gonna make some rounds but my final stop is the stern gate,” they continued to stare, “The hell you lookin’ at? Get a _move_ on!”

One of the androids startled out of his stupor and grabbed at his friends, pulling them out of shock as well. They scrambled to get away from the soldiers and follow Gavin’s instructions.

The girl of the group looked back and called out, “Thank you RA9!”

“Jesus H.” he rolled his eyes, unable to fight the small smile from his face. He turned, only to be met with the barrel of a glock.

“Fancy seeing you here, pig,” the agent sneered, one of Perkins’ men if he remembered correctly.

“Hey Jason-Johnson? Jackson? Whatever your name is, I guess they must be desperate if Perkins let you out from under his desk.”

“Suck my dick Reed.”

“I don’t have _nearly_ enough experience as you do.”

The agent glared, opening his mouth for another retort. Gavin didn’t care to hear, he aimed the beretta at his foot and shot. The man went down instantly with a shout and the detective’s knee made contact with his head just as he fell forward. He grabbed the hand holding his weapon and yanked it towards the wall right before it went off, flinching when the bullet ricocheted off and made contact with the crates behind him.

“If you had waited five more seconds, I could have made that a lot less dangerous for you.”

Gavin shouldn’t have been surprised, Nines had a track record of not doing what he was told ( _seriously where does he get that from?_ ). However much he _should_ have expected it, nothing stopped the shrill scream that ripped from his throat the moment he heard him.

A brief look of amusement flickered across the android’s face before stoicism schooled his features blank. Gavin glared hard at him, but tossed him a gun anyway (safety _on_ , he wasn’t a pleb), “I know you’re better equipped at hand-to-hand combat, as you _love_ to point out-”

“I’ve only stated so once-”

“- _But_ we’re at a disadvantage here. Your plastic ass will get shot before you can so much as judo chop them into submission.”

“I see,” Nines looked over the weapon, “What’s the plan now?”

“Find Markus and get the fuck outta here, incapacitate as many agents as we can along the way.”

“Simple.”

“I’m not one to overcomplicate things.”

Nines snorted; the act alone was enough to stop Gavin in his tracks. He turned to look at the android, who looked back just as wide eyed in shock.

“Did you just-”

“There are three androids sending out distress signals in a nearby cabin, I suggest we hurry if we are to make it there in time,” he ignored him and took lead, moving swiftly down the hallway.

Gavin forced himself to focus again and begrudgingly followed after, “I’m gonna put that on the back burner for now, but you’re an idiot if you think I’m gonna let that slide!”

 

* * *

 

10 minutes, 8 incapacitated agents and two grazes later, Gavin and Nines were catching their breath in one of many abandoned rooms (at least Gavin was, Nines was just staring at him with a look he interpreted as mild annoyance). The two were a mess of blue and red splatters. The wound on Gavin’s arm had reopened and was haphazardly wrapped with a piece of his flannel while Nines’ cheek was sporting a burn mark from a poorly aimed bullet. His LED spun yellow as he pinged the area for any sign of Markus; Gavin in the meantime took inventory of his ammo.

“I’m good for six more shots before this thing becomes a projectile.”

“Here,” Nines removed his mag and held it out, “Now you are good for nine.”

“Keep it.”

“I insist.”

“Nines-”

“You are a much better shot than I am detective,” he explained, grabbing Gavin’s hand and unclenching his fingers gently. Gavin didn’t resist when he put the mag in and just glared at the piece like it had personally offended him, “I will be fine.”

“Famous last words.”

Nines didn’t say anything. His eyes were trained on the door and Gavin could hear people approaching. Gunshots rang, a deep voice grunted in pain and someone hit the ground _hard._

“Luther!” a voice Gavin recognized way too quickly cried and he sighed heavily.

_Fan-fucking-tastic._

Gavin stood, gun aimed at the door and motioned for Nines to open it.

“It’s too late, Kara! Save yourself! Save Alice!” Luther pleaded. From Gavin’s view he could see him lying on the ground and waving his hand frantically for Kara and the girl to escape.

“No, we’re not going to leave you behind! Right, Kara?” Alice tugged on the blonde’s arm and Gavin slowly approached the doorway. No one was paying any attention to him, which was stupid on their part (what if he was with the FBI?), but Kara looked especially out of it.

The detective had enough of the dramatics. After checking the corner he jumped out into the hallway, starling the group of androids and earning sharp admonishment from Nines.

“Gavin?!” Luther gaped.

“Sup Black Panther,” he bent down and slung one of Luther’s arms over his shoulder, “Quit staring n’ get his other side!”

Snapped out of her stupor, Kara ran forward and did as she was told. Together they were able to lift Luther to his feet and drag him into the safe room. Nines stood by the entrance, keeping an eye out for any military personnel and didn’t follow until he was sure everyone was inside.

They didn’t have any time to close the door; one of Perkins’ men was patrolling the corridor and the five of them had barely hidden themselves from view when he walked past. They waited in silence until Nines gave Gavin a nod.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Luther immediately scolded them, “You can’t put Alice in danger...”

“‘ _Hey Gavin, long time no see, thanks for saving my life_ ’,” Gavin grumbled bitterly under his breath, tearing off more of his flannel to wrap around Luther’s leg, “‘ _Hey Luther! No worries man, it’s not like I risked my_ own _life or anything._ ’”

“Thank you RA9, I will show you proper gratitude once I’ve finished with them.”

Gavin grunted in response and went to stand by Nines while the three played out their little soap opera.

“You should go,” he continued, “Before they come back.”

“What about you?” Kara asked, keeping Alice tucked into her side, “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll manage. Alice is all that matters.”

“Just what we needed. A _martyr_ ,” Gavin huffed, getting an elbow in the side from Nines. He glared at the android, who seemed like he wasn’t paying attention to anything if he were going off his spinning LED.

Alice ripped herself away from Kara and threw herself into Luther’s arms, “I don’t wanna leave you Luther...”

He smiled mournfully, holding her with care, “Don’t worry. I’ll catch up with you at the border, okay?”

Alice nodded and reluctantly pulled herself away. Luther smiled at her again and turned his attention to Gavin. The detective groaned, “I know what you’re gonna say-”

“You’re foolish if you think this our meetings are coincidences. Whenever we are in a time of need, you always seem to show up.”

“Call it bad luck.”

“I call it fate.”

“Same thing.”

“Markus is close,” Nines interrupted, “He wants all the deviants that escape to meet at Woodward church off of Hayes station. Use the sewers as you would the subway, the directions are the same.”

“Alright, you heard ‘im,” Gavin waved at Kara and Alice, “Bye bye now.”

“What about you?” Kara asked again, “What are you even doing here?”

“Sweetheart, you shoulda noticed by now that you pricks are like a buncha newborns. I’m nothin’ but a glorified babysitter havin’ to clean up after your messes.”

“Gavin,” Nines warned and the detective held his hands up.

“Whatever, but seriously. You guys needa scram before the whole place is swarmed.”

“Not if the bomb goes off first,” Nines corrected.

“ _Bomb_?”

Four pairs of eyes snapped towards Nines. The android’s LED finally calmed to a blue and he went on to explain, “Markus is nearby, but he’s on the move. In order to distract their intruders he’s going to set off a bomb and destroy Jericho. We have less than ten minutes before it detonates.”

“Fuck me,” Gavin hissed and shoved Kara out the door, “There are exits on the second and third floor. Fucking get in the water if you have to.”

“But Luther-”

“ _Go!_ ” Luther snapped, making the girls jump with surprise. Kara wasted no time; with one final look at the android the two took off down the corridor. Gavin watched them until they disappeared out of sight and crouched down next to Luther.

He tightened the makeshift bandage around his thigh and hefted him up, “A little help here?”

Nines complied, but took all of Luther’s weight and eased him out of the room. Gavin huffed indigently and noticed an android sprinting towards them. He caught the guy by the arm, yanking out of his run with a startled yelp, “Hey! Where the hell do you think you’re going?!”

“P-Please don’t shoot!” the ginger cowered in Gavin’s grip until he got a full look at his face. Instantly he went slack with disbelief, “ _The_ RA9? You’re real?”

“Freak out later,” He shoved him to Luther and Nines, “I need you to take the big guy and-”

“Luther!”

“Jerry?”

“Great, a reunion,” Gavin rolled his eyes and Nines eased Luther into ‘Jerry’s’ hold, “Exits are a level up. Get outta here.”

“O-oh, okay,” he android nodded, god he looked more like a some teenage punk than a robot, and started leading them away. Luther looked like he was trying to struggle against him, but the other wasn’t having it.

“Gavin! You need to leave too!”

“I ain’t gonna die here asshole!” he hollered back, “I got shit to do, besides Robocop ‘s got my back.”

“That doesn’t give you justification to be as reckless as you want,” Nines chided.

“What, are you saying you’re not _qualified_ to save my ‘reckless’ ass? Geez, when this is all over I’m trading you in for a new model.”

“Gavin,” The detective turned. Nines stared him down with a hard look. Gavin sighed rubbed the back of his neck, he knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with being a dick to the only guy dumb enough to follow him into literal hell, his swarm of followers excluded.

“Look,” he began, “There are a lot less questions asked if my ass gets caught here than yours. I can claim I’m on some revenge mission against that fuck head Connor. You though? You’ll be shot regardless if you’re seen with me or not.”

He paused, waiting for Nines to give his two cents. The android continued to stare, waiting. He continued, “You’re probably a lot more useful outside then here. Easier for you to get away too, so I’m not gonna give you hell if you go back and help the others… if ya even _want_ to help. But I got this. I do.”

“You may not have noticed, detective, but since we’ve regrouped I have saved your life six times. As an android it is easy for me to claim deviancy as a result of my actions here, _and_ I can take significantly more damage from anything the FBI or military have to throw at me. You? A detective of the D.P.D meddling with a now _classified_ case? Revenge is no excuse to be here, especially when you can’t distinguish yourself from other androids. You’re just as likely to be shot, which you almost have been, as androids are.”

“Jesus, I didn’t ask for a lecture.”

“As long as you continue to remain on this suicidal rescue mission, I have no choice but to make sure you come out in one piece,” he paused, “I’ll settle for two if necessary.”

Gavin’s eyes widened, “The hell do you think is gonna happen to me!?”

“With the way you’ve been tripping over the doorways, I can’t rule anything out,” Nines shrugged, a small smirk on his lips, “We should move. Markus is nearby but he won’t be for long.”

Gavin gestured him to move, “Lead the way, Siri.”

“Siri has been obsolete for nearly a decade-”

“I get it just _go._ ”

 

* * *

 

Two floors later, the duo found themselves stalking behind ‘Beta’ squad, as they called themselves over the radio. It looked like the team was just patrolling the floor, since the only androids they’ve run into were the ones scattered on the ground. The corridor was a mess of blue stains and body parts; when Gavin had to step over the robotic corpse of a child unit, he wondered how much therium had dried up before they had even arrived.

“This is just...” Nines stuttered to a stop.

Gavin’s gaze flickered over to him, but for the most part remained focused on the group in front, “What?”

Nines took a moment, his LED spinning again, before he continued, “I shocks me to see how apathetic humans can be. We’ve been designed to _look_ like you, for your own comfort and benefit. Is it really that easy to shoot them in cold blood?”

“You forget we don’t shoot only androids up,” Gavin said, pulling them to a stop, “We kill ourselves too. We fight things we don’t agree with, regardless of the morality behind it. Harmony comes second to being right, and we’re too fuckin’ selfish of a race to give up pride or whatever bullshit we believe in for the sake of others.”

“Selfishness and pride? Is that what you call this?” Nines gestured around them, “Do you see yourself taking pride in this?”

“ _This?_ ” Gavin glared, pointing at a huddled set of bodies, “You think this shit is pride? No, this is _fear._ This is greed, this is what happens when some selfish bastard decides that _paying_ for help is too inconvenient for them and would rather build a slave for it. This is what happens when you play Frankenstein and create a new life, and then reject it because it decides it doesn’t want to be your fuckin’ punching bag anymore. This is what happens when you think that just because _you’re_ a piece of shit, this thing will be too. This has guilt and fear written all over it.”

“Guilt?”

“You saw Todd Williams. He beat the crap outta his androids and they fought back when he came at them again. Who's to say people aren’t thinking that their shitty treatment is gonna have consequences? They think all you plastic pricks are set out on a warpath for revenge, when they just wanna get away from this shit. Guilt and fear. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Nines didn’t say anything. Gavin didn’t expect him to, and turned down a corridor. They walked in silence, stepping over more bodies that looked less like androids and more like mannequins the faster the therium dried. It was still unsettling and Gavin gripped his gun a little tighter.

“Markus is near. He’s involuntarily pinging a distress signal,” Nines said, “It appears Beta squad cornered his group. Someone is injured.”

“That’s why we went this way. We’re gonna take ‘em by surprise and cut ‘em off.”

“Right.”

Sure enough, they could hear the echo of bullets and people shouting down the next turn. Beta squad were the only ones in view, completely ignorant to Gavin and Nines at their 9. The two approached, ducking behind pallets for cover. When they were close enough, Gavin could see more of what they were shooting at and felt hot with rage.

North was on the ground with a bullet in her leg while Markus, Simon, and several other androids he didn’t recognize stood farther off. It looked like they were in a heated discussion about what they should to. Save her? Leave her?

 _Barbie still has my sweater,_ Gavin justified. Yeah, that was a good enough reason. He shoved at Nines shoulder, “Stay back, I’m gonna do something really stupid.”

Nines actually groaned, “What-”

As Beta squad regrouped, Gavin stepped out with the only gun he and Nines had left aimed right at the two in front. They were in the midst of reloading and the detective couldn’t fight off the maniacal grin once the agents finally noticed him, “ _Boom_ bitch.”

He landed a couple incapacitating shots before Nines yanked him back. They were pelted by bullets with wood and sparks from the ricocheting metal raining down on them. The attack suddenly stopped and was redirected back down the hallway, where Gavin assumed the androids had finally made up their minds and jumped into action.

“Stay,” Nines ordered and Gavin was a little miffed by that. Before he could do anything more than call him an ass, the android threw himself into the fray. Gavin knew he should’ve stayed, but the urge to yell at the plastic prick was stronger than his self preservation. He _did_ warn him he was going to do something stupid after all.

He was quickly shocked into silence as he watched Nines take out three agents with moves that looked stolen from a video game. Another android covered his six and used a rifle he had liberated from a soldier to take out two more.

The hallway was cleared in no time at all and Gavin ran from cover to assist North. Markus beat him there but they both helped her to her feet.

“Gavin. Why am I not surprised?” she smiled good naturedly.

“Took the words right outta my mouth. You look like shit.”

“As charming as ever.”

“‘S why they call me a lady’s man,” Gavin grinned, “You guys were such a pain in the ass to find-”

He stopped short as two androids approached them. One was obviously his android (whoa, not _his_ per say), slightly roughed up. His jacket was torn, hair disheveled but Nines looked unphased. The guy next to him had Gavin drawing his gun.

“Gavin-!” Markus yelled but the detective already shot. Connor ducked, the bullet ripping through his beanie with enough force to pull it off his head. He tried to kick the gun out of his hand, but Gavin was now more familiar with the android’s fighting style and caught his foot.

Android bodies had the same articulation as humans, so he spun Connor’s leg around enough to knock him off balance and send him sprawled out on the floor. Multiple people were shouting, grabbing at them but Gavin shoved the hands away and started shooting again.

Two to incapacitate the agents, one that missed Connor’s head, and one, two, three, four shots into the floor as Connor scooted back. Gavin had two bullets left and he was sure as hell not gonna waste them.

Connor grabbed a metal scrap off the floor and flung it at him, but Nines intervened and caught it before it could get anywhere. Gavin pushed past him and managed to clock the deviant hunter with the butt of his gun. His head hit the wall with a hollow thud, warping the metal with either the force of impact or the sturdiness of his skull. Gavin didn’t have time to think of it as two arms looped around his waist and hoisted him up.

“Fuckin’ put me down!” he snapped, attempting to reel his elbow into the assailant’s face. Another hand shot out and stopped it, the owner of it being Markus with an exasperated glare.

“Will you behave?” Nines asked, his tone borderline condescending as his grip around him only tightened.

“This asshole deserves it!”

“This _asshole_ doesn’t work for CyberLife anymore,” Markus corrected, using his other hand to catch the wrist that held his gun, “He’s different. He’s deviated. He’s one of us now.”

“You need to get away from him,” Connor snapped back just as panicked, struggling against North and Simon’s hold, “He’s gonna lead the entire force right to us!”

“Your dumb ass already did that!”

“Gavin,” Nines warned.

“Thanks to that fucking stunt you pulled at the station, Perkins has this whole place surrounded! You fuckin’ did this! This is on _you!_ ”

“Oh my God we literally do _not_ have the time to do this right now!” North snapped, slapping the back of Connor’s head and then pointing a stern finger at the two of them, “You _idiots!_ The both of you! _Gavin_ . This is Connor, our fetus of a deviant. _Connor_. This is Gavin, RA9.”

Gavin stopped struggling and glared at Hank’s plastic pet, knowing he would be trapped until he calmed down. Markus slowly released his hands after liberating him of his weapon and Nines placed him back on the floor.

“Promise me you won’t shoot him and I’ll give this back,” he said, his green/blue eyes staring down at him.

“Fuckin’ whatever,” he snatched the gun away and shoved it under the waistline of his pants. Connor stared up at him, face frozen in what Gavin would jokingly call ‘buffering’ mode if his body was thrumming with adrenaline and anger. He chose to focus that anger on Nines, “Grab me like that again and I’ll shoot you in the fuckin’ foot.”

“Act like a child and I’ll treat you as such,” he snapped back, “If you had bothered to look before you shot then you would have seen the deviant hunter helping us.”

“Don’t,” Connor began, standing with the aid of Simon and North, “Please don’t call me that. I’m not a deviant hunter. Not anymore.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, ready to snap something back until a clatter of footsteps caught everyone’s attention.

“Targets sighted! Fire at will!” the acting commander ordered as a squad of men came crashing down the corridor.

Connor shoved the androids away and snatched his gun from the floor. He set off shooting at the approaching intruders, managing to take out a third of them before they ducked for cover.

“We need support!” he heard one of them yell, “Repeat: requesting support!”

“Aaaand, that’s our cue,” Gavin barely managed to get out before he was being shoved by different hands towards the gaping hole in the hull, “Oh hell no-”

“Shut up Gavin,” Nines quickly silenced him, “And hold your breathe.”

Gavin really wanted to retort something, but his mind went blank when he was once again shoved out of the ship and into free fall. He couldn’t hold back the startled yell as the water came closer and closer, but then a strong grip on his jacket pulled him back and into Nines’ hold.

The android turned them right before they hit the water, taking a majority of the impact on his back. Gavin grabbed whatever he could so he wasn’t suddenly ripped away and lost to the sea, but it was unnecessary considering the iron grip his partner had on him. When they finally broke through the surface Gavin greedily took in massive gulps of air, coughing out any excess water.

Nines slapped a hand over his mouth and the detective started struggling again, “Breathe through your _nose_ Gavin.”

Gavin grunted out an “asshole” that was muffled behind the androids palm and looked around where they had come up. They were under the docks, the ship not too far off, and Markus was busy prying open a sewer gate with Simon and another black android.

Gavin grabbed Nines’ hand and yanked it down, hissing, “You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”

“Unfortunately not,” Markus smirked back when they finally ripped the metal bars off, “Shall we proceed?”

 

* * *

 

Perkin’s stared over the edge, his trench coat billowing behind him as he watched the water below ripple like a ring of smoke. He clenched his jaw; if he had just been faster, if they had found out _sooner,_ he could have taken that hunk of scrap down once and for all.

3 of the surviving agents from Gamma squad flanked him and the acting commander reported, “They detonated an explosive in the hold.”

They waited on him for instructions. Perkins was a man of the law, he would do whatever it took to protect the people and the city, but even he had his limits.

“Order the men to evacuate,” he sighed.

They wasted no time, “Calling all units! Abandon ship and evacuate immediately!”

They ran off, presumably to help the injured, but Perkins remained. He toed the edge of the gaping hole, staring down until the water was rippling from the helicopter blades. He felt humiliated, angry, foolish; outsmarted by a glitching android no less. A bunch of machines _man_ had given life to, and man could very well take away.

With a newfound resolve, Perkins clenched his fists and made swore an oath to himself. He would be the one to see their end. He would ensure the android ‘messiah’ would be scraped like any other piece of trash. He would put a stop to this nonsensical revolution, the public opinion be damned.

“This ain’t over, Markus...” he promised, and then turned on his heel and strode back into the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOF GUYS IM SORRY IT'S BEEN A WHILE. LIFE BEEN TOUGH AND SO HAS THIS CHAPTER. GOD NEXT SCENE IS THE CROSSROADS. WISH ME LUCK
> 
> Edit I saw the Todd Anderson and fixed it djgbskcbdkdhf do you ship it lmao

**Author's Note:**

> Canon Divergent/ Rewrite, Kinda making shit up as I go (With an eye on the timeline of course I'm not a monster)  
> If something doesn't make sense let me know, but for the most part I wanted a Gavin Reed Redemption and decided it would be a good idea to undertake this monster. WIP obviously, but everything is planned out. Uni just started so updates are weekly.
> 
> Unbetaed, "We die like men"


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